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THE
AMERICAN MUSEUM
JOURNAL
EDITED BY
MARY CYNTHIA DICKERSON
VOLUME XV, I9I15
\ NEW YORK CITY
Published from October to June, by
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
1915
An illustrated magazine devoted to the advancement of Natural His-
tory, the recording of scientific research, exploration and discovery,
and the development of museum exhibition and museum influence in
education. Contributors are men eminent in these fields, including
the scientific staff, explorers and members of the American Museum
FREE TO MEMBERS OF
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM
OF NATURAL HISTORY
PRINTED BY THE COSMOS PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
1915
CONTENTS OF VOLUME XV
JANUARY
TMP ALATIOLOMG aM all SACL. ofc sites ys occ a csca is Sle else ai sh is ys, aothste Wt etalobavelene ayes «ee sys ArtTHUR A. ALLEN
Appreciation of Theodore Nicholas Gill............ 20... 0. cece eee eee eee FrepERIc A. Lucas
ihe Makine of a Hur-Seal Census. ..52i32:¢5522502...2. 5226-008 GrEORGE ARCHIBALD CLARK
HGR CO LITIOS HOS. Of G.CINTMOlLOR Yao caw. ove. ole ote le eke ie setae. eel send vote oes a evens ue tehedents c caiee L. P. Gratacap
Mam MramMatizer CONSCEVatlOM sn ie cols ches aie s siuteta ol ekecc mine ee side coe ee oer WINTHROP PacKARD
He O@row INCIAnESUn DANCE... Se le ok ciel Meise wie) chek eraund sie es winter ae Rosert H. Lowir
Educational Motion Pictures in Natural History..................... Raymonp L. Ditmars
FEBRUARY
PATINA SO MO CT GHA ETA Zl ve Phe cds te ete cee ates: s+ cuore Santee e Seeseh ewes wrens reene THEODORE ROOSEVELT
The Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition...................0.00eeeeee seus L. E. MiLuer
Roosevelt’s Through the Brazilian Wilderness— A Review.........5....-020e cece J. A. ALLEN
Guardinesthe Health of Armies) tia. ace. Woe coe epee tee se Gust eins oe C.-E. A. WINSLOW
Home: Songs of the Lewa, Indians)... 5.26 is ee es ce es ee ee ea ee ee HERBERT J. SPINDEN
Memories of Professor Albert S. Bickmore....:.............0 2 ee eaeecneveee L. P. GRavTAcaP
Marcu
TAO VEU EC TH AT steeds eee ne chia ee RMR Ole LEIS CREE reac deer eNOS Arc errar ican aC R ons. “ace i Seton ART est uma, Sart Reece
INITIO UC ATI CLT ATI ATL COS pep e colies ic, Stn tite eietraglet scies ateriet cen wcstteyeuetnie: ettar cas) steestamhr ounce ahs Rosert H. Lowi1e
Indian Dancesiin the SOUtHWEeSU: . o% duh cece cee oe ks hae ee oes eee ele HERBERT J. SPINDEN
Thex@onversavion: Of JOH. IWIN ss acs 2 2s el qrayn's = ewe ee ee eae scale: a MELVILLE B. ANDERSON
NVALHOS CeLANSSOM-in' (HE WATCUIC! 2, ec ceche cut cranes Gohe es Gosre cect eens Glee aye aye Burt M. McConne.u
The Geographical Results of the Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition.............. W. L. G. JorrRG
Daniel Giraud’ lot —-A- Biographical Sketch: =. 7.0424 2... asc tah. = 6 w= «+ waveneiaseususyorele. a teensueteveuens
APRIL
Portraits of Joon Burroughs: Naturalistiand Author... 2 cn os 6 3 cee oe ect isieten cit eesse cate alee e ears
Euntineerher Atri cane UttalOt ety en qyencrs icles aes toe sient een aly ac alae aayial seen Caru E. AKELEY
The ‘‘Toad Group” in the American Museum................... Mary Cynruita DIcKERSON
Aquarelles of our Common Woodlands............-..... 0.2 cee e ee eeee WarrREN H. MILLER
Birdepavhssand: Drinking BOOS, - 3-4-1. cise ct ite freee yee use wie tease © Ernest Haroutp BayNneEs
Motionsbicture, Records/of Indians: . 4 .<aenoce ee ce te ole ae Glee ee ele Puiny E. Gopparp
August Weismann, Zodlogist: an Appreciation........................-. FrankK R. LILuiEe
IMOLezanswHieredity aids Ser. Se ROVICW). 10. ).le rw) teeta eit allel ssid leitelee ewer E. G. ConxLIN
Note on the Crocker Land Expedition Ship........................45. GerorGE H. SHERWOOD
May
OTOL US Hea ae cae oh cred Clee eet E ree ie, KN SE Shape teu sleet ait Anatoa ne bamele altel Bptleyes ase. © Petre wees BSNS Care mem et
Oxyecenvanade water On! Wars) pe ats ews chcc we tae Score ots sik tate epee elo ata Wcofetnattalio fa taloy ae PercivaL LOWELL
The sehovorrann in) AStroMOnLy . wets Satecns uate aie a eto ter baeueneret eter Sete eewone E. C. ‘SitipHEeR
Louis Agassiz Fuertes — Painter of Bird Portraits....................... FranK M. CHAPMAN
TMheysPenguinsior South: GeOLeia.. <= <r. acco Meee sie tens ates, aus arene) ieeueh RosBeERT CusHMAN Murpuy
Muropeant@av.esrand Marly Mian 35 Siz a seve states dene, o henatia, oe be cetertelete aif antes thy eto eneMentenetaies N. C. NELSON
Hishes Ole thers eCOpn (SCas «see thoded soe acetone: shave sO oe viertleeteslateda ine co Shetey euaile, boas Sens L. Hussakor
Wolcanoesion the Wesser Amtilless |. 072% Suey. heal tne me Gree) Aerelfayre: seaencpeueh a) sre ejioy ehatte te EpmuND OmT1s Hovey
Ground-Sloth: fromva Cave: in ‘Patagonia. see... -62 <2 bo. @ noe ee alee W. D. Matraew
Somaikoli “Dance: ate SiCHUMOWI es vpsia 4 doe ee eqns eaters wi Ae eneun 2 ys she de F. S. Dr._LeENBAUGH
OcTOBER
Series ofRecent Miiseuin (Growps's: sic <b cys ie hie ce seek teat olive sel e lelia caus psngacellanusseltis eheushalisbrs tatetantepeteys
Tyrannosaurus, the Largest Flesh-eating Animal that Ever Lived............ BarNuM Brown
IT GSVOLsbHE MACON GOR pepe nee sche, eas eis rates i ahaha Nee gnats ea ele aces Rees James P. CHAPIN
Reproductions in Duotone of African Photographs...................2.00000eeeeee opposite
MnevEraliohawariie Vi deed OMNIA arasrc clone cee core saat kaya) =, abe cee wees) clean Sie Davip STARR JORDAN
Mhe-Pensuins of South! ‘Georgiass «2 - ast sens =) ee) orale oes Rospert CusHMAN MurRpuHY
Ancient Goldy Art:-im-the New WOrld!s 1s ---. 4 tects oe ee lo sho aah e Saenen ee eye HERBERT J. SPINDEN
Brederic. Ward. Putnam S39 19a as hae ie cess ees ne tate oe deiarcie aiieteeelmseaes CLARK WISSLER
NOVEMBER
Biephant Hunting on Mount Kenya... js-i96-02-6 +. a] 2 lee Riel one Caru E. AKELEY
Reproductions in Duotone of Antarctic Photographs................. 0.0. e eee ee eee opposite
whe Stefansson. Hxpedition of IOUS to 1915. ooo. t. kei te ese ne A. W. GREELY
imephexsEomexot the: Hopisindian® ..2 5 6.0.45 saute ane oe aes Gee ste &: @ sien epeleoe airs CLARK WISSLER
Beeamnines of INabural MaIstory:. .... ft vepetn<isv Sn eee a aera eeae le cone Cuarues R. HastMan
Honiton OL ATM Scan GA TIMOR aso: s ero na) ecetieretteae seas ie eeorene goer een enmsiny 4 foto e any crepe ies BasHFrorD D8AN
Tsimshian Stories in Carved Wood................ 0c cece eee eee eee GerorGsE T. Emmons
Explonnewas Spur Ob the eANGes: 5 seco syctec wheres Oiiced cenandinin shake taneisie See «rela s siete Leo E. MILueR
103
117
123
129
133
146
151
163
167
176
185
189
194
195
202
207
211
221
225
237
249
254
256
256
266
271
281
292
293
301
307
315
323
338
339
343
349
357
363
367
DrEcEMBER
An, Hxplorer's) Viewsor thet Congo... 2.2.5. 2 ss © census eae ete ciel efenebel ota c) > = Hersert Lane 379
Reproductions in Duotone of African Photographs..................2..00ceeeeeeenes opposite 388
Ancient O@ities: ol. iNew --MGxiCO: | 2c./052 acl ee eee ne ee tee Wore (2 stone N. C. NeEtson 389
Explorations in the Southwest by the American Museum....................-. CuarkK WIsSLER 395
AnimatsyorvBlown Glass, 2 crac cicne.s ce cis aie eR Neo etn clio ean ele fete a Herman O. MUELLER 399
The American Museum's Reptile Groups in Relation to High School Biology..Grorce W. Hunter 405
Hunting Deerin the Adirondacks: «3 < s2tse ie eee es so so cis ois bes 2 Roy CHapMAN ANDREWS 409
News from the ‘Crocker Land: Expedition 149 eceee ts = 2 3 2d oo ale we ese e ee a ane ote 3 oe 415
Beginnings of American wNiatural Historye. see eerie ee es ete ikea Cuar.Les R. Eastman 417
AValuable: New. bird Books, AvReviGWe- meres aoe bls co wie a seem ele T. GILBERT PEARSON 423
Fragments).of ‘Spider 7Wore sieges eines crepe er erence tac 5 Sorter as eet on cite A eee Frank E. Lutz 424
Corythosaurus, the New Duck-billed Dinosaur........ W. D. Mattruew and Barnum Brown 427
ILLUSTRATIONS
African, Natives, insert opp. 292, covers (Oct.),
(Dec.), 381-388, Insert opp. 388; Scenes,
insert opp. 292
Akeley, Mrs. Carl E., 337
Andes, 368, 369, 370, 371
Armies, Diet of, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71
Arms and Armor, 356, 359, 360, 362
Bad lands, Cretaceous, 275, 276, 277, 278
Baynes, Ernest Harold, 422
Bird, baths, 176, 178, 181, 182,
traits, 220, 223, 224, insert opp. 224, cover
(May); Congo birds, 282-291
Buffalo, African, 152, 159, 160, 161
Burroughs, John, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150
Brazil, Animals of, 38-47, 65, back and front
covers (Feb.)
Brazil, Central, Map, 129
183, 184; Por-
Caves, of Early Man, 236-247, back cover (May)
Chapin, J. P., 204
Comet, a 1910, 215
Congo, birds, 282—291; Forest, 280, 283, 284;
Grass country, 285; Natives of, 381-388,
insert opp. 388, front cover (Dec.)
Conservation, Dramatizing, 21
Deming, E. W., 91
Deer, Hunting, 409-414; Whitetailed, of Adiron-
dacks, back cover (Dec.)
Doubt, River of, 35, 36, 37, 63
Duck, Labrador, 136
Elephant Hunting on Mount Kenya, 322, 323,
325, 326, 327, 330, 333, 334, 335, 336, 338
Elliot, D. G., opp. 133, 134, 135
Fishes, Deep Sea, 248, 252, 253
Fuertes, Louis Agassiz, 205
Fur-seals, 12, 13, 15, 16, back and front covers
(Jan.)
Gemmology, Curiosities of, 18, opp. 20
Gill, Theodore Nicholas, 9
Glass, Blown, Animals of, 399-403
Goldwork, Ancient, 306, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312,
429
Great Auk, back cover (Mar.)
Groups, Museum, 266-270, 342-347, 405, 408,
430
Hornaday, W. T., 202
iv
Hygiene, Military, 66-71
Indian, dance costumes, 94; Crow, Sun-Dance,
23, 24; Dances, 95, 101, insert opp. 102;
103-115; cover (Mar.)
Indians, Apache, 185, 186, 187; Hopi, 341, 345,
346; Nhambiquara, 62; Parecis, 56, 57, 59,
61; Pueblo, opp. 78; Taos, 78, insert opp.
718; Tewa, 73, 76, 77
Katydid, 26
Lang, Herbert, 203, 378
Macedonia, 293, 295, 296, 297
Mawson, Antarctic expedition, insert opp. 338,
cover (Dec.)
Mawson, Sir Douglas, 93
Muir, John, 116, 121
Natural History,
417-420
New Mexico, Ancient Cities of, 389-398
Early Illustrations, 348-355;
Paraguay River, Along the, 48, 51, 52, 58
Planets, 211, 212, 213, 214, 216, 217, 218
Peary, R. E.. 92
Penguins, 206, 225, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 233,
235; 301-305; Penguin group, 430
Portuguese Man-of-war, 199
Putnam, F. W., 314
Red Deer River, Alberta, 279
Rhinoceros, African, 157, 318.
Rondon, Colonel, 34, 43
Roosevelt, Theodore, 34. 35, 36, 38, 41, 43, 45,
46, 49, cover (Jan.)
Santa Isabel, Paramo of, 2, 4, 5, 6,7
Stuart, R. L., 137
Taos, Mountains, 72, insert opp. 78
Taylor, W. S., 90
Telescope, Lowell Observatory, 208, 210
Toad group, back and front cover (April), 162,
164, 165, 166, insert opp. 166; 168-174, 405
Tsimshian, carved wood, 364
Tyrannosaurus 270, 273, 274, 276, back cover
(Oct.)
Wandorobo, Family of, 156; Guide, 158
Weismann, August, 188
INDEX OF VOLUME XV
Names of contributors are set
Accessions:
Anatomy and Physiology, 32
Archeology, 263, 264
Geology, 85, 86, 88
Herpetology, 32, 264, 317
Mammalogy, 87, 144, 200. 320
Mineralogy, 32
Ornithology, 87, 144, 200
Public Health, 32, 144, 376
Vertebrate Paleontology, 32, 86, 373
AKeELEY, Cart E., Elephant Hunting on Mount
Kenya, 322-328; Hunting the African Buf-
falo, 151-161
Akeley, Carl E., 261, 276, 431
ALLEN, ArtHuR A., The Paramo of Santa Isabel,
3-8
ALLEN, J. A., Roosevelt’s Through the Brazilian
Wilderness,— A Review, 64—65
American Association for Advancement of Science,
85, 86, 319
American Ethnological Society, 263
ANDERSON, MeEtyiLite B., The Conversation of
John Muir, 116-121
Andes, Exploring the, 367-371
AnpDREws, Roy C., Hunting Deer in the Adiron-
dacks, 404-414
Andrews, Roy C., 320, 375
Anthony, H. E., 83, 144, 200, 259
Antilles, Lesser, Volcanoes of, 254—255
Appointments, 144, 259, 319, 373
Aquarelles, Common Woodland, 167—175
Armies, Guarding Health of, 66-71
Armor, Arms and, 356-362; Riggs Collection of,
84
Astronomy, the Photograph in, 210-219
Audubon Societies, National Association of, 320
Audubon, John James, 31; Eliza M., 31
Baker, George F., 142
Ball, D. S., 259
BayYNEs, Ernest Haro tp, Bird Baths and Drink-
ing Pools, 176-184
Baynes, E. H., 431
Bears, 258
Bell, J C., 31
Berkey, Charles P., 30, 197
Bickmore, Albert S., 29, 79-82
Bird Baths and Drinking Pools, 176—184
Bliss, William H., 143
Bourn, W. B., 319
Brazil, Central, Animals of, 34-47
Britton, N. L., 30
Brown, Barnum, Corythosaurus, the New Duck-
billed Dinosaur, 427-428; Tyrannosaurus,
the Largest Flesh-eating Animal that ever
Lived, 271-279
Brown, Barnum, 86, 374
Bryant, W. L., 86
Buffalo, African, Hunting the, 151-161
Burroughs, John, 142, 196
Byerley, Frank M., 34, 144
Cary, William de la Montagne, 320
in small capitals
Caves, European, and Early Man, 236-247
CuapPIin, J. P., Birds of the Congo, 280-292
Chapin, J. P., 148, 196, 431
CHAPMAN, FranK M., Louis Agassiz Fuertes —
Painter of Bird Portraits, 220-224
Choate, J. A., 29, 142
Churchill, Mrs. William, 320
Clark, B. Preston, 428.
CuLaRK, GEORGE ARCHIBALD, The Making of a
Fur-seal Census, 12—17
Climate, Evolution of, 258
Collections: Colombian, 200; Congo, 143, 197;
Mexican, 32; Panama, 259; Peruvian, 32,
142, Pampean, 432.
Coles, Russell J., 31, 262
Congo, Birds of, 200—292;
379-388
Conkuin, E. G., Morgan’s Heredity
A Review, 194
Conservation, to Dramatize, 21—22
Contents, Table of, 1, 33, 89, 145, 201, 265, 321,
Se
Corythosaurus, 427-428
Crampton, Henry E., 432
Crawford, M. D. C., 142
Crocker Land Expedition, 415-416
Curtis, Edward S., 84
Cuyler, Thomas De Witt, 142
Explorer's View of,
and Sex,
Dances, American Indian, 94—102; Indian, in the
Southwest, 103-115; Somaikoli, 256—258
Dean, Basurorp, Evolution of Arms and Armor,
356-362
Dean, Bashford, 319
De Angulo, Jaime, 319
Deer, Hunting, 409-414
Dellenbaugh, F. S., Somaikoli Dance at Sichu-
movi, 256—258
Deming, E. W., 84, 142, 261
Devilfish, 31
Dickerson, Mary Cyntuia, The Toad Group
in the American Museum, 162—166
Dickerson, M. C., 374, 406
Dirmars, Raymonp L., Educational
Pictures in Natural History, 26-28
Dodge, Cleveland H., 29, 142, 319
Dodo, 373
Douglas, James, 142
Douglas, R., 264
Motion
Eastman, C. R., Beginnings of American Natural
History, 348-355, 417-421
Education, Public, 83, 142, 143, 144, 196, 198, 261
Elephant, Hunting, 322-328
Elliot, Daniel Giraud, 142;
Sketch of, 133-141
Emmons, GrorGE T., Tsimshian Stories in Carved
Wood, 363-366
Eno, Amos F., 429
Exhibitions, 31, 32, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 197, 319, 320
Expeditions: Australasian-Antarctic, motion pic-
tures, 373; Collins-Day South American,
29, 319; Colorado, 258; Crocker Land. 195—
433
Bibliographical
434
196; 415-416; Isthmus of Darien, 259;
Roosevelt South American, 48-63; 128, 132,
260; Stefansson, 317, 339-341; Townsend
‘‘Albatross,’’ 376; Congo, 143, 196, 281, 379,
431
Farrand, Livingston, 261
Fisher, G. C., 375
Fishes, Deep Sea, 248-253
Ford, Henry, 142, 196
Fuertes, Louis A., 221—224
Fur-seal Census, Making of, 12—17
Garner, Richard L., 376
Gemmology, Curiosities of, 8-20
Gifts: 85, 86, 142, 143, 196, 259, 262, 264, 317,
320, 374, 428, 429
Gill, Theodore Nicholas, Appreciation of, 9-11
Glass, Blowing, 399-404 .
Gopparp, Puiiny E., Motion Picture Records of
Indians, 185-187
Goddard, Pliny E., 86, 261
Goeldi Museum, Para, 144, 260
Gold Art, Ancient, 306-313, 429
Goldfarb, A. J., 374
Granger, Walter, 86
Gratacap, L. P., The Curiosities of Gemmology,
18-20; Memories of Prof. Albert S. Bick-
more, 79-82
Gratacap, L. P., 29, 375
Greety, A. W., The Stefansson Expedition of
1913-1915
Gregory, William K., 86
Ground-Sloth, 256
Groups, Museum, 87,143, 162—166, 200, 264, 320,
405-407, 431
Halter, Clarence R., 264
Harper, Francis, 144
Heredity and Sex, Morgan, Review of, 194
High School Biology, 405—407
Hill, Prentice B., 259, 432
Holder, C. F.. 374
Hornaday, William T., 260
Horticultural Society of New York, 374
Hovey, EpmuNnp Oris, Volcanoes of the Lesser
Antilles, 254-255
Hovey, E. O., 83
Howe, Marshall A., 30
Hrdli¢ka, A., 198
Hubbard, Thomas H., 264
Hunter, G. W., Reptile and Amphibian Groups
in relation to High School Biology, 405-407
Hussaxkor L., Fishes of the Deep Sea, 249-253
Hussakof, L., 86
Ichikawa, F. S., 31
Indians, 31, 84, 85, 88, 142, 143; American,
Dances of, 94-102; Crow Sun dance, 23-25;
Dances in Southwest, 103-115; Hopi, 342—
347; Motion picture records of, 185-187;
Tewa, Home Songs of, 72-78
Iselin, Adrian, 142
Ivins, Mrs. William M., 320
Jennings, Herbert S., 431
Jewett, W. Kennon, 319
Job, Herbert K., 320
Jorre, W. L. G., Geographical Results of the
Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition, 128-132
INDEX OF VOLUME XV
Joline, Mrs. A. H., 375
JORDAN, Davin Starr, The Trail of War in Mace-
donia, 293-300
Juilliard, A. D., 85, 317
Kligler, I. J., 86
Kroeber, A. L., 26, 41, 320
Kunz, George F., 86, 375, 432
Lane, Hersert, An Explorer’s View of the
Congo, 379-388
Lang, Herbert, 259
Lange, Algot, 432
Lanier, Charles, 142
Laysan Island Group, 320
Lectures: 29, 31, 32, 83, 85, 142, 148, 144, 197, 375,
431
Leng, Charles W., 264
Lituiz, Frank R., Appreciation of August Weis-
mann, Zodlogist, 189-193
Loans, 375
Longley, George C., 374
Lowett, Percivat, Oxygen and Water on Mars,
207-209
Lowir, Rosert A., American Indian Dances, 94—
101; The Crow Indian Sun Dance, 23-25
Lowie, R. H., 86, 262, 319, 376
Lucas, Freperic A., Appreciation of Theodore
Nicholas Gill, 9-11
Lueas, Frederic A., 319
Luschan, Felix von, 29
Lutz, Franx E., Fragments of Spider Lore, 424—
426
Lutz, Frank E., 30, 32, 86, 259, 264, 375
Lydekker, Richard, 263
Macedonia, Trail of War in, 293-300
Mars, Oxygen and Water on, 206-209
Mather, Stephen Tyng, 319
Marruew, W. D., Corythosaurus, the New Duck- -
billed Dinosaur, 427-428; Ground-Sloth
from a Cave in Patagonia, 256
Matthew, W. D., 86, 258, 319
Mawson, Sir Douglas, 30, 83
Mayer, A. G., 259
MecConne.tu, Burt M., With Stefansson in the
Arctic, 122-127
McCormick, Howard, 31, 200, 264
McGregor, J. Howard, 198
Mead, Charles W., 261
Members, 29, 83, 142, 198, 259, 372, 428
Men of the Old Stone Age, H. F. Osborn, 30, 429
Mendelian Heredity, Exhibit, 260
Merriam, John C., 320
Mexico, Antiquities of, Lord Kingsboro, 376
Miuter, L. E., Exploring a Spur of the Andes,
367-371; The Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition,
48-63
Miller, Leo E., 200
MiILuerR, WARREN H., Aquarelles of our Common
Woodlands, 167-175
Mills, Ogden, 376
Miner, Roy W., 30, 87, 259
Morgan, J. P., 142
Moriori, Skull, 374
Morris, E. H., 258
Mosquito, Models of, 200
Motion-pictures, Educational, 26-28
Move .ter, H. O., Animals of Blown Glass, 399-
404
INDEX OF VOLUME XV
Mueller, H. O., 259, 376
Muir, John, Conversation of, 116-121
Murie, James R., 264, 320
MoureHy Rosert Cusuman, The Penguins of
South Georgia, 225-235; 301-305
Museum Notes, 29-32; 83-88; 142-144; 196—
200; 258-264; 317-320, 372-376, 428-432
Mutchler, A. J., 259, 375
National Academy of Sciences, 372, 431
Natural History, Beginnings of American, 348—
355; 417-421
Netson, N. C., Ancient Cities of New Mexico,
389-394; European Caves and Early Man,
236-247
Nelson, N. C., 30, 86, 258, 261, 320
New Mexico, Ancient Cities of, 389-398; Field
work in, 30
New York Academy of Sciences, 30, 83, 144, 198,
200, 258, 261, 263, 374, 375, 432
New York Aquarium, 258
New York Botanical Garden, 317
Nichols, J. T., 30
Norton, Frederick G., 258
Operti, Albert, 143
Osborn, Henry Fairfield, 29, 30, 86, 142, 198, 319,
429
Osburn, Raymond C., 259, 263, 376, 428
Osgood, Wilfred H., 144
PacKaRpD, WinTHROP, To Dramatize Conserva-
tion, 21-22
Pacoval, Island, 432
Pampean, collection, Cope, 432
Panama-Pacific Exposition, 83, 262, 264, 319
Pan-American, Congress, 372
Pearson, T. Gitpert, A Valuable New Bird
Book, 423
Peary, Robert E., 143, 198
Penguins, South Georgia, 225-235; 301-305
Penguin group, 431
Percy, Lord William, 200
Peruvian, Collections, 32, 142; Metal industries,
262
Porto Rico Survey, 200, 259, 264, 375, 432
Portuguese Man-of-war, 198
Pottery, prehistoric, 432
Publications, Museum, 32, 142, 262, 264
Putnam, Frederic Ward, 314-317
Radin, Paul, 261
435
Reeds, Chester A., 86, 259, 432
Rivers, W. H. R., 262
Roosfvevtt, THroporre, Animals of Central
Brazil, 34-47
Roosevelt, Theodore, 29
Santa Isabel, Paramo of, 3-8
Seton, Ernest Thompson, 32
SHERWOOD, GrorGE H., Note on the Crocker
Land Expedition Ship, 195-196
Skinner, A., 85, 86, 88, 202
Skinner, M. P., 432
SurpHeR, E. C., The Photograph in Astronomy,
211-219
Snethlage, Emilie, 144, 260
Southwestern Anthropological Society, 261
Spider Lore, 424—426
SprinpEN, Herspert J., Ancient Gold Art in the
New World, 307-313; Home Songs of the
Tewa Indians, 72-78; Indian Dances in the
Southwest, 103-115
Spinden, Herbert J., 86
Stead, David G., 144
Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 85, 317;
with, 122-127
Storage System, 261
In the Arctic
Taxidermy, new process in, 431
Taylor, Will S., 143, 261
Toad Group, 162-166, 405-407
Torre, Carlos de la, 86
Trustees, 30, 142
Tsimshian, Stories, 363-366
Vassar, Anniversary, 374
Watson, F. A., 263
Weismann, August. Appreciation of, 188-193
Whale, Sei, 376
Wild Bird Guests, Baynes, — Review of, 423
Wild Life, Protection fund, 260
Wille, N., 30
Winstow, C.-E. A., Guarding the Health of
Armies, 66-71
Winslow, C.-E. A., 86, 263, 374
Wisster, Criark, Explorations in the Southwest
by the American Museum, 395-398: Fred-
eric Ward Putnam, 1839-1915, 314-317; In
the Home of the Hopi Indian, 342-347
Wissler, Clark, 86, 320, 432
Young, Mahroni, 31, 200
TAGVS! VLINVS ‘AA TIVA OWV'Vd
THe American Museum JourNAL
VoLuME XV
JANUARY, 1915
NuMBER 1
THE PARAMO OF SANTA ISABEL
By Arthur A. Allen
Photographs by the Author and by L. E. Miller
of a few years upon my experi-
ence in the Andes of Colombia,
the days spent on the paramos recur
most vividly to my mind. The debili-
tating weeks in the steaming coastal
forests with their parasites and fevers,
the long hours in the dugout canoes
beneath the blazing vertical sun, the
dust of the valley trails, and the lomas
with their clouds of locusts pass from me.
I forget the interminable silence of the
Cloud Forest, its soaking moss and epi-
phytes, but as often as memory recurs,
comes to me the austere splendor of those
stretches of rock and sky, of ridge piled
upon ridge, backed by a line of snow and
gray cloud and bathed in an atmosphere
cool and clean. It was a land of peculiar
fascination tome. I recall how we toiled
across the paramo of the Valle de Pappas
and though at this time so lashed by
wind and rain that the trail was visible
hardly fifty paces ahead, it still had lost
none of its charm. Peaceful as it is
during its few months of summer, the
Andean paramo is a land of sleet and
storm during the rest of the year; indeed
| OOKING through the perspective
Note.— Dr. Arthur A. Allen, a member of the
biological staff of Cornell University, was con-
nected with the Museum’s expedition in Colombia,
from August, 1911 to May, 1912. During this
period, in codperation with Mr. Leo E. Miller,
he made important collections in the vicinity of
the Quindio Trail, and in the little-known region
between Popayan and the Valle de Pappas, and
San Agustin; also in the Cauca and Atrato val-
leys. In the latter region he contracted a severe
type of malarial fever which necessitated his re-
turn to the United States.
many of the trails even at the equator
are closed, and man and beast that
attempt to cross are frozen to death.
The paramo of Santa Isabel lies about
two days’ journey from Salento, the
largest town on the Quindio trail which
crosses the central Andes, and on clear
days, especially toward dusk, can be
seen at several points rising above the
forest-capped ridges to an _ altitude
between sixteen and seventeen thousand
feet. Beyond it and a little to the east
lies the paramo of Ruis, and most magni-
ficent of all, Nevada del Tolima, with
its crown of crystal snow gleaming in the
rays of the setting sun. Many travelers
pass over the trail without ever a glimpse
of the snows to the north, seeing only
the banks of clouds that obscure even
the tops of the moss-forest and hide all
but the near distance. The sight of the
snows is so unusual even to the natives
that with the first lifting of the clouds
groups of travelers assemble at the open
spots along the trail and discuss the
coming of winter.
So it was in the little town of Salento
where we happened to be stopping.
They manifested great concern over our
proposed trip and told us that we must
hasten if we would camp on the paramo
before the storms set in, when life there
would be impossible. So one morning
in early September we slung our packs
and started for the paramo of Santa
Isabel. From Salento the trail to the
paramo leads first down into the Boquia
3
Santa Isabel from the Quindio Trail— Cloud Forest in the foreground has more tropical luxuri-
ance than the lowland jungles, the trees being burdened with giant vines and they in turn laden
with moss and fern and orchid.
timber line at about 12,500 feet
Valley and then follows the river’s
meandering course through groves of
splendid palms nearly to its source, when
it turns abruptly and begins a steep
ascent of the mountain side. The palm
trees, in scattered groves, continue to
nearly nine thousand feet, where the trail
begins to zigzag through some _half-
cleared country, where the trees have been
felled and burned over, and where in be-
tween the charred stumps, a few handfuls
of wheat have been planted and now wave
a golden brown against the black.
And next the Cloud Forest! It is
seldom that the traveler’s anticipation
of any much heralded natural wonder is
realized when he is brought face to face
with it. Usually he feels a tinge of dis-
appointment and follows it by a close
scrutiny of the object before him in
search of the grandeur depicted, but not
so with the Cloud Forest. It surpasses
one’s dreams of tropical luxuriance. It
is here rather than in the lowland jungles
that nature outdoes herself and crowds
every available inch with moss and fern
and orchid.
4
Here every twig is a garden
Cloud Forest extends up the mountain side from 9000 feet to
and the moss-laden branches so gigantic
that they throw more shade than the
leaves of the trees themselves. Giant
vines hang to the ground from the hori-
zontal branches of the larger trees and
in turn are so heavily laden with moss
and epiphytes that they form an almost
solid wall and present the appearance of a
hollow tree trunk fifteen or twenty feet
One should pass through
this forest during the rainy season to
form a true conception of its richness,
in diameter.
although even during the dryest months
the variety and abundance of plant life
covering every trunk and branch seem
beyond belief.
Quite as impressive as is its luxuriance,
is its great silence. One walks for hours
along its rank trails, sometimes sinking
knee-deep in the wet forest mold, and
hears no sound. A slight tsip or a buzz
of wings in the tree top may tell of the
presence of a honey creeper or humming
bird, or the weird call of a tinamou or an
ant thrush from the dark recesses may
startle one, only to leave him the more
impressed by the great breathless silence.
THE PARAMO OF
The trail through this forest was new
and while perhaps not quite as steep as
the old Indian trail, was very difficult in
places. Many
and led our horses, where the soft mold
of the trail seemed insecure and where
times we dismounted
even a slight floundering of the animals
might have pitched us down the moun-
tain side. Even with such care one
of the mules floundered and before we
SANTA ISABEL 5
change occurs. The trees become
dwarfed, their leaves small and thick,
heavily chitinized or covered with thick
down, and remind one of the vegetation
about. our northern bogs with their
Andromeda and Labrador tea. Here too
the ground in places is covered with a
dense mat of sphagnum, dotted with
dwarfed blueberries and cranberries and
similar plants which remind one of home.
Looking back at timber line— We had left the tropics of Cloud Forest and come into a tem-
perate region, almost on the equator but more than 12,500 feet above the sea.
shows clouds rolling in at the left
could get to his assistance was rolling
and over down the mountain.
Fortunately it was still in the forest and
one of his packs became wedged in the
roots of a tree, holding him until we
could get to his release.
This great forest occasionally inter-
over
rupted by clearings, continues for many
hours’ travel up the mountain from 9000
to about 12,500 feet, where a sudden
The photograph
A cool breeze greets the traveler, sky
appears in place of the great dome of
green, and suddenly he steps out upon
the open paramo. He has been travel-
ing through the densest of forests, seeing
but a few hundred paces along the trail
and only a few rods into the vegetation
on either side; he has grown near-sighted,
and even the smallest contours of the
landscape have been concealed by the
6 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
dense forest cover. Suddenly there is
thrown before his vision a whole world
of mountains. As far as he can see in all
directions save behind him, ridge piles
upon ridge in never-ending series, until
they fuse in one mighty crest which
pierces the clouds with its snow-capped
crown. This is the paramo of Santa
Isabel.
At this point we dismounted and led
our horses along the narrow ridge, for
they were not used to the mountains.
We looked in vain for the jagged peaks
that are so characteristic of our northern
On the paramo of Santa Isabel—The ground is undermined with numerous small rivulets and
the strange mullein-like frailejons grow everywhere even up to the edge of the snow, sometimes
reaching a height of ten feet in sheltered places
THE PARAMO OF SANTA ISABEL 7
frost-made mountains. Here even the
vertical cliffs did not seem entirely with-
out vegetation and as far as we could see
with binoculars the brown sedges and the
gray frailejons covered the rocks even up
to the very edge of the snow. Beneath
our feet the soil was springy and as we
afterwards found, undermined with in-
numerable small rivulets making their
way to the stream below, which we could
hear even at this distance as it dashed
over the boulders
and occasionally
gleamed in the sun-
light. All about us
the strange mullein-
like frazlejons, as the
natives call them,
(Espeletia — grandi-
flora Humb. and
Bonpl.), stood up
on their pedestals,
ten or even fifteen
feet .1n height
in sheltered spots;
down among _ the
sedges were many
lesser plants similar
to our North Ameri-
can species: gen-
tians, composites, a
hoary lupine, a but-
tercup, a yellow sor-
rel, almost identical
with those of the
United States.
Birds also, several
of which proved to
be new to science,
were numerous, but
all were of dull colors
and reminded one in
their habits of the
open country birds
of northern United
States. A goldfinch
hovered about the
unicolor).
frailejons, a gray flycatcher ran along the
ground or mounted into the air much
like our northern horned larks, an oven-
bird flew up ahead of us resembling a
meadowlark, a marsh wren scolded from
the rank sedges, and almost from under
our horses’ hoofs, one of the large Andean
snipes sprang into the air with a charac-
teristic bleat and went zigzaging away.
On a small lake which we now had come
to, barren except for a few alge, rode
In the shadow of a frailejon — The nest is made entirely from the down
of the frailejon leaves and belongs to a slate-colored finch (Pahrygilus
On the paramo the leaves of all plants are either small and
horny or heavily covered with down
8 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
an Andean teal, surprisingly lke our
northern gadwall. And so the story
goes on. Here almost on the equator
but 13,000 feet above the level of the
sea, we had left the strangeness of the
tropics and come upon a land that was
strikingly like our own.
We decided to pitch camp at timber
line where there would be wood for cook-
ing and so made our way back down the
valley to the edge of the trees where we
had some difficulty in finding a dry level
spot for the tent.
Here we studied and collected for
about a week, working up the ridges to
15,000 feet but finding greater abundance
of bird life along the dashing stream that
flowed cown the valley in which we were
camped. There was not however, a
great variety of birds and but few species
were really common. Mammals too,
were scarce, a few tracks of deer and
tapir along the edge of the forest and
numerous runways of the rabbits in the
rank sedges, being almost the only visible
signs. Even the smaller rats and mice
were scarce, and few came to our traps.
Each night the temperature dropped
to freezing, each noon the temperature
rose to about 75 degrees Fahrenheit, and
each afternoon great white clouds rolled
up from the forests below and obscured
the landscape. One dared not venture
far from camp after three o’clock, for the
great mass of anastomosing ridges would
easily confuse even the traveler with a
compass. In fact one day when return-
ing from ap exploring trip to the snow
line, the clouds rolled up while we were
still four or five miles from camp. Ridge
after ridge disappeared from sight until
soon we could see only the rocks close
about us. There was no trail to follow
and we were soon unable to recognize any
of the features of the landscape that were
still visible. For two hours we stumbled
along trying to keep track of the number
of ridges as we passed them and trying
to recall the number passed during the
morning, until finally we gave up hope
of return that night. Looking about for
a spot somewhat sheltered from the raw
winds which had already begun to sweep
down from the snows above us, a ray of
light very far to the left attracted our at-
tention and we looked just in time to see
the rift in the clouds close again. We
knew it must have been reflected from
the small lake at the head of the valley
in which we were camped and realized
that we had been traveling at least an
hour in exactly the wrong direction.
It was not reluctantly therefore, that
we abandoned the thought of beds of
frailejons and made straight for our
little lake. In terrible thirst and fatigue
and after many collapses from the great
altitude, we were able at last to perceive
its dim silver outline, and we knew we
were little more than a mile from camp.
This was our first warning to leave the
paramo. In a few weeks these ridges
would be covered with snow and swept
by gales. The clouds and fog would not
part for days and life would be unendur-
able — although even then one would
feel the more deeply the grandeur of
the elements, and with the mountain
tops shut from view, would still know
their awe-inspiring presence. With this
warning then, we prepared to leave the
paramo.
AN APPRECIATION OF THEODORE NICHOLAS GILL
By Frederic A. Lucas
HERE died in Washington on
September 25, 1914, the man
who may well be termed the
Nestor of American zodlogists, not per-
haps so much from the fact that he
chanced to be a year or so older than his
from his extraordinary
compeers, as
grasp of vari-
ous branches
of zodlogi-
eal science.
Theodore
Nicholas Gill
vas born in
New York,
March 21,
1837. He
passed part
of his early
life in Brook-
lyn, and we
infer from his
“Reminis-
cences of the
Apprentice’s
nib r ar yo)”
that this an-
eestor of the
Brooklyn In-
stitute of Arts
and Sciences
had much to
do with turn-
ing his atten-
tion from law
toward natu-
He first became familiar
with the Institute that was to be, in 1854,
when he was seventeen, and as long as he
remained in Brooklyn, made use of its
library and collections and was a regular
attendant at the meetings of the Lyceum
of Natural History, being for a part of
the time its secretary.
ral history.
The fact that shells were the objects
most readily obtained and preserved by
amateurs, and the accessibility of the
fine ichthyological library of Mr. J.
Carson Breevoort, seem to have been
the factors that directed his attention
to conchology and ichthyology, although,
as noted far-
ther on, other
factors came
into play
The
influence of
later.
Baird and of
the Smithso-
nian Institu-
tion led him
to Washing-
ton in 1868,
where for a
time he was
librarian — of
the Smithso-
nian Institu-
Eom fasnd,
later, assist-
ant librarian
of the Library
of Congress.
For one
who achieved
such impor-
tant results
he did com-
paratively
little original
work, from a natural indolence of body
which led him to take life easily, to shun
the dissecting table, to relegate the labor
of preparation to others and to utilize
their work, even if he might not accept
their conclusions, for he possessed to an
unusual extent the ability to make use
of the work of others, not by claiming it
9
10 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
as his own, but by embodying it as one
of many items in some important gen-
eralization. If one may so put it, he
took the bricks of information turned
out by many workers and combined
them into an edifice of knowledge. As
might perhaps be expected from one of
his temperament, he was a “closet”’
rather than a “field” naturalist, al-
though in his earlier days he visited the
West Indies in the interests of Mr. D.
Jackson Steward, whose shells! form
part of the collections of the American
Museum of Natural History.
For many years his favorite morning
haunt was the library of the United
States National Museum, and later, the
periodical room in the Smithsonian,
where he read the standard scientific
journals as soon as they were received,
and noted the most recent discoveries
in those lines in which he was especially
interested. This extensive reading,
coupled with a wonderfully retentive
memory, made him an extraordinary
source of information. He was a verita-
ble storehouse of zoGlogical facts, which
were freely placed at the disposal of
anyone who really wished them. As a
matter of detail, he probably had at his
tongue’s end more scientific names of
animals than any other living man —
more probably than anyone will ever
know again. This wide knowledge ren-
dered easy such work as the technical
parts of the zodlogical portion of the
Century and Standard dictionaries. In
the first-named work he was associated
with Dr. Coues, and more than once
sorely tried the patience of his colleague
by his procrastinating habits,” for while
Coues was a fluent talker and ready
writer, he was also a hard and syste-
1 Gill’s second published paper was on Cyprea
notata, now considered a synonym of C. macula,
from a specimen in the collection of D. W. Fergu-
son, which is now in the collection of Columbia
University.
matic worker, as his many books and
various papers bear witness. It is
rather interesting to note that these two
men, Coues and Gill, should have been
so closely associated, for Coues probably
did more than any other one man to
popularize the study of birds and mam-
mals, and Gill, though largely indirectly,
did much to systematize and stabilize
the technical side. As an example of
Gill’s ultra-technical style may be cited
his definition of Giraffide:
A family of ruminant artiodactyl mam-
mals, having the placenta polycotyledonary,
the stomach quadripartite with developed
psalterium, the cervical vertebree much
elongated, the dorso-lumbars declivous back-
wards and horns present only as frontal
apophyses covered with integument.
Coues read this and turning to Gill
said, “That is n’t English, its Choctaw.”
“No,” said Gill, “it is an exact defini-
tion of the family.”
For many years, more than twenty to
the writer’s knowledge, Gill occupied a
room on the west side of the big north
tower of the Smithsonian, and for a long
time Coues had an office on the opposite
side, the two opening into a still larger
intercommunicating room. Dr. Gill’s
room like the girl’s workbasket, had a
“place for everything and everything
in it,’’— desk, chairs, shelves, floor —
especially floor — were covered, aside
from dust, with a miscellaneous collec-
tion of books, pamphlets, old letters,
skulls, skeletons and odds and ends of
wearing apparel. During the summer
this deposit, like a lava stream, flowed
2The recent article in Science is in error in
calling Dr. Gill the author of the zodlogical text
of the Century Dictionary: Dr. Coues was the
editor and wrote the major part of the definitions
and chose the larger number of the illustrations;
Dr. Gill was the scientific adviser, so to speak,
and Coues relied largely upon him for accurate
and technical information. Gill wrote a large
share of the technical definitions, particularly
those of the families and genera of mammals
and fishes. — The Author.
AN APPRECIATION OF THEODORE NICHOLAS GILL 11
slowly eastward until by fall all three
rooms were filled and Dr. Gill was work-
ing at Coues’s desk. Here and in the
Museum library Dr. Gill’s papers were
mainly prepared, for even in his later
days he rarely made use of a stenog-
rapher. Gill’s astonishing knowledge of
names and his exactness in matters of
nomenclature made him extremely help-
ful in the bestowal of names upon new
species, and it was customary for one
about to christen some newly discovered
beast, bird or fish to ask him if the
proposed name had been previously
used, a procedure that saved much time
and many synonyms. He excelled in
tracing the history of some much de-
scribed species through the mazes of
literature in which it had wandered, and
delighted to show that what Aristotle is
supposed to have called some animal
was really quite a different creature.
He was the first president of the
Biological Society of Washington and
hence a life member of the council; he
was also an almost constant attendant
at its meetings. As the present special-
ization of societies had not even begun,
the members of this society represented
many branches of science and the papers
presented covered a remarkably wide
range of subjects, varying from technical
to popular, and from Protozoa to Pri-
mates.
It mattered not what paper was
presented, it came to be expected that if
Dr. Gill did not lead the discussion, he
would participate in it, and when at the
close of some paper the hearers turned
expectantly toward Dr. Gill, they were
rarely disappointed. He was a severe,
one might almost say merciless critic,
not from any particular personal animus,
but because he expected an exact state-
ment of fact.
While the majority of Gill’s papers
were systematic, yet on occasion he
could write most entertainingly, and not
only did he have a vast fund of informa-
tion on which to draw, but the reader
had the satisfaction of feeling that he
could rely upon what he was being told.
His contributions to zodgeography were
numerous also and the subject was dealt
with in at least two of his presidential
addresses.
Among the more important deductions
that he made were the recognition of the
claim of the Elasmobranchs to a position
of the “highest” rank and of the purely
artificial nature of the groups Carinatie
and Ratite in birds. He accurately
defined and established on a sound
structural basis seven orders of fishes,
to say nothing of genera, and was prac-
tically the first to suggest that the
curious little fishes termed Leptocephalus
were larval forms of eels.
As an example of the estimation in
which the work of Dr. Gill was held by
fellow scientists, one cannot do better
than to quote an extract from David
Starr Jordan’s Guide to the Study of
Fishes read by Dr. Smith at the Testi-
monial Dinner to Dr. Gill:
Theodore Nicholas Gill is the keenest
interpreter of taxonomic facts yet known in
the history of ichthyology. He is the author
of a vast number of papers, the first bearing
date of 1858, touching almost every group
and almost every phase of relation among
fishes. His numerous suggestions as to
classification have been usually accepted in
time by other authors, and no one has had a
clearer perception than he of the necessity of
orderly methods in nomenclature.
And Dr. Jordan further wrote:
In my scientific work I have owed more
to the critical ability of Dr. Gill and his clear
insight in matters of classification and ge-
neric relations than to any other man whatso-
ever. In all the long history of science there
has been no one who has had this unique
quality of being able to see through unim-
portant things to the real heart in biological
classification as has Dr. Gill.
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THE MAKING OF A FUR-SEAL CENSUS
By George Archibald Clark
{Of Leland Stanford University]
HE really important practical
problem in connection with the
fur-seal herd of the Pribilof
Islands has always been that of enumera-
tion. How many animals are there?
Is the herd increasing or diminishing?
What is the rate either way? What
number of young males can safely be
taken each
year? What
breeding — re-
serve should
be set aside?
These ques-
tions can be
answered _ ef-
fectively only
by a more or
less exact cen-
sus of the
herd.
In making a
fur-seal census
you cannot, as
in the case of
human com-
munities, go to
the head of
the household.
The harem
master is not
an approacha-
ble being and
will not discuss family affairs with you.
You go within his circle, if at all, at your
peril. You can stand on the neighbor-
ing cliffs and looking down upon his
household observe many things of in-
terest; but this will not tell you whether
all his wives are at home or how many
children he has. The children hide in
the crevices of the rocks and most of the
mothers are away at sea feeding.
It is easy to count the harem masters.
Each one is big and aggressive and is
always at home. As you come into his
range of vision he rises up to greet you
like a bristling question mark. The
fur-seal families can therefore be easily
Itis
possible
to count the
individual fe-
males on many
Sega ibe ned
breeding areas,
and this fact
has been uti-
lized at times
counted.
even
to, gain an
approximate
enumeration,
an average
being
thus obtained
which could be
applied to
breeding areas
where counts
of individuals
harem
were impossi-
ble.
The fur-seal
census how-
ever, does not rest finally with the adult
animals; it rests in the young of the
season, or the fur-seal pups. Although
destined to spend most of its life in the
water and to brave all kinds of weather,
the fur-seal pup in the beginning is timid
of the water and keeps away from it dur-
ing the first month or six weeks of its life.
13
Bull fur seal, Gorbatch Rookery, St. Paul Island
14 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
There is a time therefore in each breed-
ing season when all of the pups are
absolutely within reach; and as there
is a mother for each pup, a count of the
pups is in effect an enumeration of the
mothers — the breeding females — the
all-important element in the herd.
By the first of August each season,
practically all of the fur-seal pups are
born. About this time also the majority
of the harem masters, who have fasted
since their arrival in May, have with-
drawn from the rookeries to feed at sea.
The mother seal, while she will defend
her pup of a few hours old with her life,
pays no attention to it when it is a week
or more old, betaking herself promptly
to the sea when disturbed and leaving
the pup to shift for itself. A very little
urging therefore suffices to clear the
rookeries of the older animals, leaving
the young to be dealt with by themselves.
The period is a limited one because
when the fur-seal pups begin to take to
the water the transition from a land
animal to a water animal is very sudden
and after the pups gain command of
themselves in the water they take to it
instantly when disturbed. There is
however, a period of about ten days in
early August when the pups can be con-
trolled and counted.
The fur-seal rookeries occupy about
eight miles of shore front, generally in a
narrow band twenty to fifty feet in width.
At certain points there are massed areas.
Each form of breeding ground has its
own problems in the counting. The
narrow beaches have holes and crevices
among the rocks where the little animals
hide. On the massed areas they can be
more readily controlled, but there is
danger of crowding and smothering.
The difficulties in neither case are seri-
ous and call merely for care and experi-
ence in dealing with them.
On the narrow beach portions, the
process of counting is carried out by
two persons, one passing along the sea-
ward side of the rookery, the other on
the landward side. Coming together
they cut off a small group of twenty-five
to one hundred pups and force them to
run back along the beach twenty to
fifty yards. These pups represent vary-
ing ages and degrees of strength since
they are born at different dates between
the twelfth of June and the first of August
and they therefore naturally line out in
order of capacity to travel and this line
can be readily counted. The process
is like that of the counting of sheep as
they pass through a narrow gate.
Group by group the pups of a given
rookery are counted. Between the pas-
sage of the separate pods, or groups, the
openings in the rocks are searched for
hidden animals. Careful search is also
made for the dead, a necessary part of
the enumeration. The services of na-
tive helpers who, preliminary to the
work of counting have driven off the
adult animals, are utilized at all times
to keep the pods of counted animals
from mingling with those not counted.
Where massed groups occur they are
rounded up and held loosely on some
flat surface, a native guard being posted
about, except at one point from which
the animals are allowed to run off.
These departing pups again travel
readily in lines which can be counted
by two’s and three’s and four’s. If
tendency to stampede develops, a guard
is thrown across the front and a new
opening at some other point is estab-
lished. By the above process, repeated
and varied as conditions demanded, in a
period of four hours, approximately
eleven thousand fur-seal pups were
handled and counted from the massed
breeding ground under Hutchinson Hill
on St. Paul Island in July, 1918. One
of the accompanying photographs illus-
A general rookery view from the cliffs, showing contrast between males and females by which
harems can be counted.
The young seals hide in the crevices of rocks and a large number of the mothers may be away at sea
feeding, but it is easy to count the harem masters who are big and aggressive and are always at home.
An approximate average of the females in a harem must often be applied to packed breeding areas where
the bulls alone are conspicuous and individual enumeration impossible
The process of counting fur-seal pups in the massed area on Hutchinson Hill, July, 1913. Note in
the background of the photograph the long line of pups which are being counted as they file past.
Fur-seal pups are easily counted only during a period of some ten days in early August. This is
after they are a week or so old and the mothers no longer defend their young but depart leaving them
to shift for themselves, and before they have learned to take care of themselves — in which later condi-
tion of course they take to the water as soon as approached ;
15
9T
ONILNNOOD NI GAIGNVH SONI SdAd AO GOd G3SSVW V
€16T ‘AINE
‘AIOYOOY Ulpedez oy} Jo spros my
WAYVH SIH DSNIGYVYNS
THE MAKING OF A FUR-SEAL CENSUS wi
trates the operation of counting and the
following is a record of the pods as run
off:
152, 108, 146, 54, 128, 152, 116, 40, 152, 68,
200, 78, 96, 150, 234, 192, 44, 52, 56, 122, 144,
23, 83, 110, 66, 150, 232, 98, 10, 102, 120, 53,
119, 106, 118, 14, 56, 62, 58, 88, 91, 68, 21, 61,
42, 110, 67, 72, 68, 88, 90, 66, 48, 20, 61, 58, 88,
50, 80, 168, 14, 68, 37, 68, 116, 82, 68, 33, 128, 41,
44, 15, 25, 54, 134, 243, 54, 90, 42; 116, 75, 120,
100, 57, 36, 17, 116, 44, 36, 50, 79, 88, 68, 115, 69,
118, 153, 122, 56, 33, 55, 48, 70, 124; 174, 63, 180,
146, 14, 73, 146, 84, 173, 235, 129, 52, 25, 26, 63,
102. .Total, 10,576.
It was by this process of counting,
applied day by day to the rookeries in
1912, that the first full count of fur-seal
pups was made, the number being
81,984. A repetition of the process in
1913 gave a total of 92,269. The differ-
ence, approximately twelve and one-
half per cent, marks the rate of increase
in the herd between the two seascns,
the first seasons for thirty-five years in
which the fur-seal herd was free from the
drain of pelagic sealing [suspended by
treaty of July 7, 1911], with its destruc-
tion of mother seals and their young.
These three elements—the adult
males, the adult females, and the young
of the season — constitute the important
features of the fur-seal census. They
were thus fixed by actual count.
There remain certain other animals
in the herd which cannot be counted.
These are the two and_ one-year-old
females and the young males of four
years and under. They come and go
irregularly, some of them spending very
little time on land. The annual rate of
increase in the herd, established by the
counts of 1912 and 1913, enables us to
estimate very closely the number of
young three-year-old females on which
it depends. The sexes are subject to
hike vicissitudes and from the approxi-
mately equal birthrate of the sexes a
like number of three-year-old males
The two-
year animals can be closely judged from
these, and the yearlings, from births of
the preceding year, diminished by the
losses which experience shows the ani-
mals to suffer in the first migration.
Putting these various estimates to-
gether and uniting them the
counted animals we have the following
may be assumed to survive.
with
total for the fur-seal herd in the season
of 1913:
Breeding males 1,403
Reserve males 2,364
Breeding females Po tor ar ee HO 209
Young of the season 92,269
Three-year-old males 10,000
Two-year-olds . 30,000
Yearlings 40,000
Total . 268,305
This census affords to the government
as accurate a knowledge of the status
of its fur-seal herd as, for example, the
average cattleman has of the animals
on his range.
The herd will now grow steadily in
the future and in due time as many
animals may be expected in the herd as
it formerly showed, between two and
three millions. With this growth, count-
ing of all the pups cannot long be con-
tinued. The task will become too great.
It can however, be continued on certain
limited areas and the balance of the
herd judged by these. Certain valuable
averages have been obtained — for the
individual rookeries, for each of the
islands, and for the herd as a whole.
It will always be possible to get a rea-
sonably accurate count of the breeding
families. To this the known averages
of harem sizes in 1912 and 1913 can be
applied with a result sufficiently exact
for all practical purposes.
MOSS AGATE MOCHA STONES, HINDOOSTAN
Specimens from the Morgan Collection of Precious Stones in the American Museum.
Illustration from The Curious Lore of Precious Stones, by George Frederick Kunz, Ph.D., D.Sc.
Copyrighted 1913, by J. B. Lippincott Company, Publishers, Philadelphia
18
THE CURIOSITIES OF GEMMOLOGY
A REVIEW OF A RECENT BOOK BY GEORGE FREDERIC KUNZ ON SUPERSTI-
TIONS AND MEANINGS ATTACHED TO PRECIOUS STONES
L. P. Gratacap
These metaphysics of magicians,
And necromantic books are heavenly.
Lines, circles, scenes, letters, and characters:
O what a world of profit and delight
Of power, honour, and omnipotence,
Is promised to the studious artizan.
Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.
HE pages of a recent book! by Dr.
in George Frederick Kunz, hono-
rary curator of gems at the
American Museum, will be turned over
by the fascinated reader with, we ima-
gine, the most interesting commixture of
feelings, an interfusion of wonder, amuse-
ment and_half-credulous assent, of
admiration and curiosity. He will feel
admiration at the art and discernment,
the resources and adequacy of the
author, and curiosity as to the origin
or real derivation of such strange pre-
dispositions, hallucinations and_ ultra-
romantic traditions and fancies, regard-
ing these “mute insensate things.”
Certainly the traditions and fancies are
not unfamiliar. In any desultory read-
ing they have been encountered by every-
one — not forgetting indeed the Wilkie
Collins story of boyhood, The Moon
Stone, but here through almost four
hundred pages of anecdote, quotation,
description and allusion, reénforced by
beautiful figures and plates, the effect
is bewildering. Why these attributes of
miraculous power? Why the association
of precious stones with religious beliefs,
why the mystic influences credited to
birthstones, the extra-terrestrial stations
assigned to gems in the zodiac, and their
1THE Curious Lore or Precious STONEs.
By George Frederick Kunz. Philadelphia and
London: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1913.
ascription to the planets — with the more
contemporaneous touch of occultism
when we read of the prophetic powers of
crystal balls, their magical landscapes
and portents? Such questions are surely
not answered in Dr. Kunz’s work, and
indeed a sowp¢on of dissatisfaction arises
when we think that we discover in the
learned writer, a poetic acquiescence in
these ascriptions, as perhaps becomes
the antiquarian, the virtuoso, the con-
noisseur, and above all the philosophic
historian.
But if reasons are not fully discussed,
albeit many passages assume some seri-
ousness in that respect, the display of
facts, the careful analysis of reports,
and the evidence of large research, the
clearness and charm of narration, with
the remarkable elegance of illustration,
are all there.
The frontispiece of the book is a su-
perbly colored plate of cut and polished
gem-stones, many from the Morgan-
Tiffany collection in the Museum. This
is followed by three other fine examples
of color reproduction: Cardinal Farley’s
ring, gems from the Morgan-Tiffany
collection, and the dazzling cross, at-
tached as pendant to the crown of
the Gothic King Reccesvinthus. The
remaining illustrations evince the quali-
ties of the unusual, the rococo, the
quaint, the delicate and the antique, as
befits a book of a semiliterary and
scientific scope; the touch of the virtuoso
is plain and the guidance of expert taste
as well. The chapters’ as they succeed —
each other are as follows: Superstitions
19
20 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
and their Sources; Talismans and Amu-
lets; Talismanic Use of Special Stones;
Engraved and Carved Gems; Ominous
and Luminous Stones [with an excep-
tionally valuable plate giving the auto-
photographs of luminous diamonds];
Crystal Balls and Crystal Gazing; Reli-
gious Uses of Precious Stones; The
High-Priest’s Breastplate; Birth-Stones;
Planetary and Astral Influences; On
Therapeutic Uses of Stones.
The book has an overwhelming wealth
of detail and assembled references, avail-
able literature and the most diverse
elements of evidence having been care-
fully sifted. We are not sure, but we
believe that one field has not been har-
vested, and that is the Church Fathers,
interesting and possibly prolific of quota-
tion, since the patristic writers were in-
quisitive in many ways. Apart from the
purely archaic strangeness of the fancies
the book records — regarding the quali-
ties of gems and precious stones, interest
emphatically attaches to the accounts
of erystal-gazing. It might be regretted
that Dr. Kunz has not
greater length the work of Miss Good-
rich-Freer and of Miss Gregor (Andrew
reviewed at
Lang’s friend), and extracted more liber-
ally from Crystal-Gazing by Northcote
W. Thomas, as also from Andrew Lang’s
Making of Religion, which has many
cases, appreciatively recorded, of “sery-
ing” (short for descrying).
Tothose of us a little ‘ dematerialized,
as Oliver Lodge for instance, an agreeah!e
mysteriousness is felt in Mr. Lang’s
words, “If then the crystal gazer is right
in a considerable percentage of cases,
to my unmathematical mind it does
look as if some unknown human faculty
and fact in nature may be surmised.”
Dr. Kunz does mention “hypnagogic
illusions,” the illusive appearances in-
troducing sleep, and he does contribute
more space than perhaps he deemed the
subject could claim in his work, to a few
guesses as to the nature of the queer
phenomena so frequently adduced in this
”
connection.
The Curious Lore of Precious Stones is a
most entertaining book, and to the re-
flective reader will afford a singular reti-
nue of impressions as to the vast credu-
lity and the imaginative exuberance of
the human mind, so that perchance as he
lays it down, he will exclaim with the
“Duke” in Twelfth-Night:
so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.
Rubellite, from the
Shan Mountains,
China. Used as idol’s
eye in India
Star of India—Proba-
bly the largest star
sapphire in the world
Engraved Emerald—
East Indian Carving,
17th Century
Copyrighted 1913, bv J, B. Lippincott Co.
GEMS FROM THE MORGAN COLLECTION
IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Spt
at
TO DRAMATIZE CONSERVATION
STAGE AND MUSEUM TO JOIN HANDS IN A NEW OPPORTUNITY
By Winthrop Packard
The JourRNAL publishes the present sketch by Mr. Packard concerning museum work as viewed
by poet and dramatist, for its suggestiveness. In respect to it relative to the American Museum,
we would say that this institution holds the belief that an educational institution of the organization ofa
museum should employ all the codperation possible and use all the methods feasible at any given period
in the history of civilization, in order to make its service reach the minds and imaginations of the people
who come to learn from it. The American Museum in New York is at present broadening its relations
with the public schools of the city and employs moving pictures in much of its educational work. That
it should at some time in the future use some form of the drama as one of its methods of education,
does not seem an impossible step.— Epiror.
HE poet’s vision has done much for together for the world’s welfare and now
the world, and the dramatist vis- the poet comes forward with a new vision.
ualizing the poet’s thought, has ‘The stage is to visualize conservation and
done much. Often the two have worked make its needs felt by the public.
: “Drama and conser-
vation,’ says Percy
Mackaye to whom we
owe the new idea, “is a
new coupling of the
words, but the present
age is restive of tradition
and for the first time
in history the naturalist
and the artist of the
theatre have come to-
gether to consider how
they can serve the public
The nature student never
goes to the drama except
For the child the museum must
put more beauty and dramatic truth
into its exhibits of animals.
Arvia, the poet’s little daughter
who, wandering in the woods and
listening to the hermit thrush, sees
and hears as in a dream the story of the play, Sanctuary. Through her vision we see the dancing of the
dryad in the realm of fantasy, hear the pleading voice of the bird spirit — and come to feel the
cruelty that it is to take the life of a wild bird for its plumage :
21
22 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
as a diversion. There he expects to for-
get his study of bird and beast and revel
in a world of fantasy which has nothing in
common with science. In the same way
the worker of the theatre goes to nature
merely for rest and relaxation. What
does wild nature mean to him excepting
a pageant of unnamable birds and ani-
mals in whose presence he may forget
the cares of his work? But that is the
old-fashioned point of view for both. A
new school arises and we are discover-
ing that scientists and artists are one
soul, seeking truth by two methods —
the one objective, the other subjective.
Science has fought its fight with super-
stition and tradition and has won. Art
is only beginning its fight with supersti-
tion. Dramatic art is not yet delivered
from its life scramble with quacks and
commercialism. Yet in the hearts of
the people, is the origin both of drama
and of conservation and there the two
will ultimately work together.”
“The plea for conservation,” says
the naturalist Ernest Harold Baynes,
“must reach the hearts of the people
before it can achieve success. They
must visualize the beauty and romance
of wild life as well as its economic value.
Then they will be willing to conserve it.”
Out of these beliefs of naturalist and
poet came the bird masque Sanctuary, by
Percy Mackaye, under the tutelage, one
suspects, of Mr. Baynes. The play isa
dream of Mackaye’s little daughter, to
whom through the voice of the hermit
comes the great need of preserving our
wild birds. “The text-books,” says
Augustus Thomas, “tell us that drama
is a story told in action, but I believe
that a better definition is an idea visu-
alized.” In Sanctuary we have the idea
that bird life must be conserved, visu-
alized and made very real.
It is believed that the play gave im-
petus to the fight for the clause in the
new tariff bill, forbidding the importa-
tion of feathers. Thus already has the
drama been a powerful agency in for-
warding the movement for the preserva-
tion of wild birds — but the opportunity
has merely a beginning in this. It is
easy to see that the needs of forestry,
of the protection of our water supply,
and in fact of all branches of conserva-
tion may be put upon the stage with
equal beauty and grace.
“Let us dramatize our museums,”
says Mackaye. “The natural history
museum is established for a great social
object, the conservation of wild nature
knowledge in the hearts of people.
Equipped by science only, it cannot fully
obtain the interest of the people for
whom it was founded. It must go
farther and reach their imaginations.
As it stands now indeed, it is a public
boon; the people spend their spare time
on Sunday at the museum, gazing eagerly
at the exhibits although they only in part
understand them and do not, in any case,
fully appreciate their meaning. They
spend their spare time for the rest of the
week at the “movies.” To them the
museum is never ecstatic and vivid,
but the moving pictures are. AXE,
it ought to be possible so to interpret
the exhibits at a museum as to make
them live for the general public as do
the moving pictures. The naturalists
and taxidermists have felt this need in
creating the exhibits and have done
their best to meet it. It is possible
completely to fulfill this need. The
drama can do it..... Pageantry pos-
sésses the people. It must become a
civic drama in name and in technique
and will develop the masque to fit the
public needs.”
The masque Sanctuary has thus marked
the beginning of an epoch in the service
which the stage of the future is to render
humanity. It offers a new field to
player and playwright — a new pleasure
and a new incentive to the playgoer.
THE CROW INDIAN SUN DANCE
By Robert H. Lowie
HILE I was investigating vari-
ous phases of the old Crow
culture in 1910, I heard a
good deal about the sacred dolls formerly
used in the Sun Dance, but without any
expectation of ever seeing one “in the
flesh”? since the last ceremony of this
type had been celebrated thirty-five
years previously. After a while I
learned however, that not only a doll,
but what my informants regarded as the
most sacred of all dolls, was still in the
possession of an elderly widow, named
“Pretty-enemy,’ whose husband had
been the real owner. Pretty-enemy,
being a woman, was not even permitted
to unwrap her precious possession, which
was occasionally taken out by old men
visitors, who would address it in prayer
and restore it to its envelope. The
sense of unremunerative ownership evi-
dently weighed on the woman’s mind,
and when she heard that I had bought
numerous articles of ethnographical in-
terest she approached me through my
interpreter with an offer to sell the doll.
The price first demanded was so extra-
vagant that I felt obliged to decline with
regret, but after a lapse of negotiations
Pretty-enemy again approached me with
a more reasonable offer. Then the
purchase was consummated after I had
pledged strict secrecy so far as the
Reservation people were concerned, for
the woman was very much afraid of
social ostracism as soon as her action
should become known.
Looking at the doll with a layman’s
eye, one would hardly be disposed to set
much store by it. It is a stuffed effigy
of the human form, about six inches long,
with crudely marked eyes and mouth,
and a number of half-faded rectangular
crosses front and back, to symbolize the
One of the most highly venerated of the medicine bundles of the Crow Indians.
a rawhide envelope in which was kept the sacred doll together with various smaller sacred objects
used in the ceremony of the Sun Dance.
It consists of
23
of the tribe took part.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
morningstar; the head is topped with a
profusion of plumes. The rawhide en-
velope in which the doll was kept also
contained a number of subsidiary articles,
including skunkskin regalia worn by the
pledger of the Sun Dance, rawhide
effigies, beaded bags and bunches of
feathers —none of them of ostensibly
great intrinsic value. Why then was
this medicine bundle so highly regarded
by the natives? In order to understand
this, we must understand the character
of the Crow Sun Dance.
By the several Plains tribes the Sun
Dance was celebrated for a variety of
reasons. Among the Western Algonkin,
for example, it was performed mainly in
order to ward off disease or other danger
from the pledger and his family. But
among the Crow the motive was quite
different from that of their neighbors:
a Crow promised to undergo the expense
and hardship of the ceremony only when
some near relative of his had been slain
by the enemy and for the sole purpose of
wreaking vengeance on the guilty tribe.
Any military operation whatsoever was
supposed to be the result of a super-
natural revelation that ensured success,
and accordingly such a revelation was
sought in the Sun Dance, but in this case
the end could be secured only through
the hypnotic action of a particular type
of object, the sacred doll. By fixedly
gazing at the doll during the dance, a
man could make himself go “out of his
head,” that is, go into a trance. When
in this condition he would see an enemy
lying bleeding on the ground, and this
vision was taken as a promise by the
supernatural powers that his quest for
revenge would be crowned with success.
Hence the mourner who undertook a Sun
Dance was obliged to seek out some man
This sacred doll (about six inches long) was thought to give a vision at the close of an
elaborate ceremony called the ‘‘Sun Dance,’’ which lasted several days and in which all members.
The last Crow Sun Dance was celebrated some thirty-five years ago
THE CROW INDIAN SUN DANCE 25
owning one of the dolls and induce him
to supply the needed effigy, and act
as master of ceremonies, vested with
dictatorial powers. The doll bought of
Pretty-enemy had been successful, above
all others of its kind, in effecting visions
that led to victorious reprisals against
the enemy, hence the high veneration
in which it was held by the tribe.
It would seem from the above that the
entire Sun Dance pivoted about the doll
and the vision it procured. In a certain
sense this is true, for no sooner had the
vision been experienced and announced
than the ceremony came to an abrupt
stop, and preparations were made to
bring about the fulfillment of the promise
embodied in the revelation. Neverthe-
less this would be a very one-sided point
of view. For the Crow Sun Dance, like
the corresponding ceremony of all other
Plains tribes, was a very elaborate per-
formance, lasting several days, in which
practically all the members of the tribe
played a part. To the pledger and the
doll-owner, to be sure, the essential thing
was the vision to be obtained through
the doll, but to the other tribesmen,
whether actors or spectators, the per-
formance meant something quite differ-
ent. As in all great assemblies of the
Crow tribe, there was abundant oppor-
tunity for the recital of one’s heroic
exploits; accordingly, to the great
warriors the Sun Dance was a chance
for self-aggrandizement before a large
audience. Again, certain offices in the
construction of the lodge devolved only
on men and women of a perfectly pure
mode of life, hence for these the cere-
mony meant a public recognition of
virtue. Then there were others who
voluntarily underwent self-torture, not
to enhance the vision of the pledger, but
in order to secure one for their own
benefit. As for the common herd, what
appealed to them most was probably
the dramatic aspect of the spectacle and
the licensed frivolity that was customary
throughout the duration of the ceremony.
The great interest of the Crow Sun
Dance lies precisely in this: that it brings
out so clearly the great difference be-
tween theory and reality, which coin-
cides in this case with that between the
esoteric and the exoteric aspects of the
ceremony. Theoretically, any part of
the performance not directly contribut-
ing to the production of the vision would
seem superfluous. But in reality, to
the great majority of the people, the
“superfluous” portions of the perfor-
mance are probably the main object of
interest, filling the want of a free show.
Moreover, these exoteric parts are the
very ones that are most widely diffused
over the Plains area and are thus pre-
sumably of great antiquity. To say
therefore, that the entire Sun Dance of
the Crow is nothing but the quest of a
vision to ensure vengeance, would be
wide of the truth. It seems so only to
the logic-chopping white observer, or
to the native himself when he begins to
theorize about the complex things he
does. But apart from the pledger, the
Indian performers or witnesses pass
through various psychological states
during the ceremony, which are very
remote from the notion embodied in the
theory of the performance. This ten-
dency to rationalize his actions, to inter-
pret things to himself and mislead
himself and the guileless ethnologist as
to his real motives, is a very marked
characteristic of primitive man that has
invited and continues to engage the
attention of ethnologists.
‘
THE COMMON ROUND-WINGED KATYDID
Some recent ingenious and painstaking work in motion pictures has brought to our eyes the
mysterious activities of insects in a way we should never have thought possible
The katydid ‘‘sings’’ by rubbing together the overlapping glassy parts of the wings just back
of the head
26
EDUCATIONAL MOTION PICTURES IN
NATURAL HISTORY
By Raymond L. Ditmars
HE growth of the educational motion
picture rather parallels that of its dra-
matic ally. There was a time when a
moving picture of a railroad train was con-
sidered a novelty and from that time the
product for the theatres has grown steadily
in elaboration until superb dramatic produc-
tions of five and six thousand foot lengths are
in use in every civilized part of the world.
When I first considered the practicability
of showing the habits of mammals, reptiles,
amphibians and insects by means of motion
pictures, I was confronted with the immediate
decision that an especially constructed labo-
ratory would be necessary and this would
probably involve much originally designed
apparatus. The latter point proved to be
of prime importance. It was fully a year
after the construction of the studio that con-
tinual experimental work demonstrated the
best available apparatus. Experimentation
had been difficult and so costly that I was
called to a halt for five months in preparing
“nyopular”’ educational films for theatrical
use in order to cover expenses to purchase
the necessary apparatus.
The studio was finally lighted with a com-
bination battery of mercury vapor lamps and
arc lights. It was necessarily arranged to do
all the photographing by electric light owing
to daytime duties at the Zodlogical Park.
Switchboards, light housings and supports,
all stagework, backgrounds and general acces-
sories were built at the studio. A projecting
room was arranged for the immediate testing
of all films, an automobile provided with ap-
paratus for collecting and a number of tanks
and cages provided for specimens. Actual
work in preparing a systematic series of nat-
ural history films was begun in August of
1913. With the reopening of the free lec-
tures of the Board of Education of New York
City in the fall of 1913, the first of these films
was used for educational purposes.
The work of photographing mammals, rep-
tiles and insects demands much varied in-
genuity. Some of the mammals large enough
to be dangerous took many liberties in the
studio and at times did considerable damage.
In order to avoid any trace of cagework in the
pictures, the subjects had the free run of the
place and were enticed upon the stages with
food or by rock shelters built for them. The
promptings of a hungry stomach were found
to be the most effective in the stage manage-
ment of this theatre of nature and many of the
pictures were made at the period of feeding
time. The prowling of a hungry ocelot or
tiger cat is a good illustration of animal man-
agement. For several days this creature’s
food had been concealed in different locations
of the stage— sometimes hidden among the
rocks or concealed in the branch of a tree.
The picture was taken as the cat started to
search for the food, crouching, scenting and
alertly peering about, in characteristic actions
of the wilds.
With the scenes of poisonous snakes strik-
ing, where there was the necessity of taking
the photographs very close to the reptiles,
the camera was run by an electric motor.
This relieved the human operator of the
grave danger of standing within a few feet of
an infuriated fer-de-lance or cobra. In pho-
tographing the ring-necked cobra or Spugh-
schlange of South Africa, the camera was
peppered with drops of poison, as this snake
voluntarily sprays its venom a distance of
six to eight feet, its object being to blind the
enemy. The snake was induced to face the
camera by projecting a spot of light on a
white semaphore directly under the lens.
The development of the eggs of frogs and
toads was obtained with a camera set before
a Bohemian glass jar and from the same posi-
tion recording a few feet of film each day.
One of these cameras did such duty for a
period of two months, thus placing this in-
strument hors-de-combat for all other labora-
tory work. The life history of several spiders
was obtained in like fashion. The story of a
large species of Lycosa, or wolf spider, was
recorded throughout upon the same “‘field’’—
a gravelly hollow six inches square. After
each photograph the enclosure was covered
with a bell-glass and wet sponge to provide
the proper moisture — for many spiders are
particularly delicate as captives.
The care of this spider was more laborious
than that of a large animal. Soft-bodied
grubs were hunted for her and she received
drinking water by permitting miniature drops
27
28 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
to run to the end of a broom straw. These
precautions were necessary in preserving the
absolute cleanliness of her tiny yard, which
on the projecting screen would be magnified
thousands of areas. The spinning of her egg
cocoon was successfully accomplished and we
awaited with much anxiety the time when the
young spiders would emerge and crawl upon
the parent’s back — hundreds of them, pre-
senting an indescribable spectacle. At last
this chapter of the family history was recorded
and there was a wait of eight days for the
infants to swarm from the mother’s back and
shift for themselves. This process may be
spectacularly inaugurated by a sudden vibra-
tion of the ground, causing the parent to
jump — then a riot of the spiderlings swarms
over the ground.
An additional camera was trained into the
field, for once the dispersal takes place all is
over and the little spiders are gone. The
critical time, when the youngsters appeared
uneasy, arrived on a humid evening, when a
heavy electrical storm was brewing. The
rectifiers for the mercury vapor lamps were
already giving some trouble as the cameras
were adjusted. With the cameras running,
we dropped a steel ball upon the metal stand
containing the spider arena to cause it to
vibrate, and the spider family departed to all
points of the compass. This was an event we
had anxiously awaited and luck appeared to
be with the photographer. As the electrician
prepared to throw out the main switch and
extinguish the illuminating batteries, lght-
ning followed the feed wires into the studio
and gave us a week’s work repairing burned-
out parts. But the history of the spider
family was completed minus a few feet of
film showing the exit of the more laggard
members.
So many insects are tiny, almost micro-
scopic creatures and such a large propor-
tion of them perform their characteristic
capers in inaccessible places that the value
of greatly enlarged motion picture portrayals
opens previously impossible opportunities
for study and observation in the schoolroom.
By these methods students are enabled to see
habits that the greater number of them would
never in any other way observe. Not one
child in a million has seen the katydid
sing, the praying mantis rear in frightful
pose, grasp and devour a fly, a gaudy grass-
hopper carefully brush pollen dust from its
face.
It is not so difficult to obtain motion pic-
tures of insects eating because these creatures
are always hungry and persist in satisfying
their appetites even under greatly disturbed
conditions, but to obtain scenes of nervous
spiders caring for their young and to show
insects singing — that is a different matter.
To photograph the katydid smging was
a difficult task. This insect smgs by scrap-
ing the wings together and only at might. A
light of any kind will stop it. Yet to photo-
eraph a singing specimen at night meant that
a stream of powerful electric hght must be
turned upon the songster. The deed was done
in a grove of young oaks close to the studio.
Several dozen katydids were placed in the
trees and the camera — on a high tripod —
focused on the vegetation of a tree in the
center of the grove. The instrument, with
special long focus lens was to record the
movement of a single insect that watched all
proceedings, but remained silent owing to our
close arrangements with the machines. The
camera was then belted to a small motor so
that no operator would stand by the instru-
ment to disturb the insect. A searchlight,
such as is used in the navy was then trained on
the single tree in which reposed the actor, its
powerful rays making photography possible.
With the remainder of the grove in darkness
the decoy katydids sang vigorously. In
the intense beam of violet light the principal
in this educational drama was seen turning
slowly. Was it irritated by the light, and
would it crawl from the lines of focus? This
would mean much labor in moving the heavy
apparatus in what seemed a fruitless and
costly experiment. But its uneasiness was
caused by the saucy taunts of the decoys.
Its wings were elevated slightly. It could not
resist answering some of those rasping calls.
The man behind the searchlight could be
seen glistening with perspiration as he ‘‘fed”’
the carbons of the great are light. The
writer’s fingers were upon the switch of the
camera motor. Then the insect’s wings
began to move rhythmically and another
chant was added to the chorus of “katydid,
katydid n’t,’”’ and so it continued until the
picture was taken. And this picture has
been seen by thousands of school children
who never knew how insects ‘‘sing.”’
MUSEUM NOTES
Since the last issue of the JouRNAL the
following persons have become members of
the Museum:
Life Members, Masor Basti Hicks Dutcr-
ER, U. S. A., and Mr. Wiii1amM: RuTGER
BRITTON;
Annual Members, Mrs. W. P. HarprEn-
BERGH, Mrs. CuarLtes HirscHHorNn, Mrs.
W.W. Hoppin, Jr., Mrs. ALBERT L. JUDSON,
Mrs. 8. R. Kaurman, Mrs. Jacop LANGE-
LoTH, Mrs. Jown R. Livermore, Mrs.
Morris Lors, Mrs. Toeresa Mayer, Mrs.
GerorceE L. Orts, Mrs. EUGENE H. Pappocr,
Mrs. JEROME RecensspuRG, Miss Marie
Louise Batpwin, Miss Mary PIncHor
Eno, Miss Emma G. SEBRING, Miss Mary
SHOONMAKER, Hon. Henry Roserts, Dr.
Cuarues E. Friecx, Dr. T. MiItrcHELu
PruppEN, and Messrs. H. H. BENepIcT,
ALFRED PoLK BerGcH, ALFRED BLEYER, A. I.
Esserc, B. HamBurcer, Martin F. Jack-
son, Ropert U. JoHNSON, GEORGE KENNAN,
WarRrREN KINNEY, Henry M. LEsTER,
Epmunp J. Levine, CHartes N. Map,
GeEORGE W. MERRIHEW, ALLAN PINKERTON,
Myron T. ScuppErR.
A NEw expedition, to cross South America
by way of La Paz and Cochabamba, the
Mamore, Madeira and Amazon rivers, and
to be known as the ‘Collins-Day South
American [Eixpedition,’”’ has been organized
to sail December 26 for several months’ work
in exploration and zodlogical collecting.
Mr. George K. Cherrie will accompany the
expedition as the naturalist representing the
American Museum of New York and Mr.
Robert H. Becker will represent the Field
Museum of Chicago. The birds and the
mammals collected by the expedition will be
presented to the American and Field mu-
seums respectively for permanent ownership
of types and for scientific study and publica-
tion, preliminary to a later equal division of
all specimens except types between the two
institutions.
CoLonEL THEODORE RoosEVELT on the
evening of December 10 presented before
the members of the Museum some of the
zoological results of his recent expedition to
South America. He was introduced by
Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn and was
accompanied on the platform by Mr. George
Kx. Cherrie, one of the Museum’s representa-
tives with him on the expedition. A full
report of the expedition will be given in the
February JOURNAL.
Dr. Frtrx von LuscHan, professor of
anthropology at the University of Berlin and
director of the Royal Ethnographical Mu-
seum, visited the Museum several times
during the month of December. Professor
von Luschan, who delivered the Huxley
lectures some years ago, had been one of the
guests of honor at the Australian meeting of
the British Association for the Advancement
of Science. He is primarily a specialist in
physical anthropology, but has done notable
work in ethnography, being especially in-
terested in the Oceanic and African fields,
and has also conducted archeological re-
searches in Asia Minor. He found many
specimens of great interest in the South Sea
hall and pronounced the Jesup collection of
tattooed Maori skulls to be unique. On
December 17 Professor von Luschan lectured
at the American Museum under the auspices
of the American Ethnological Society; his
subject was “Culture and Degeneration.”’
He dwelt particularly upon inherited physical
disabilities and the alarming decrease in the
birth rate among the wealthier classes in the
cities of Europe.
A Memortrat Meetine in honor of the
late Professor Albert S. Bickmore will be
held at some time during the latter half of
January. Mr. Joseph H. Choate, and Mr.
Cleveland H. Dodge, who were intimately
associated with Professor Bickmore, will give
brief addresses in which they will recount the
steps that led to the founding of the museum
and the story of the early days of the institu-
tion. Mr. L. P. Gratacap, curator of miner-
alogy of the Museum faculty, will present
personal reminiscences of Professor Bickmore.
Tue following note from Science for Decem-
ber 18 is of interest to JOURNAL readers:
At the Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia on Tuesday evening, November
24, Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn was pre-
sented with a Hayden medal. In present-
ing the medal Dr. Samuel G. Dixon called
attention to the fact that Mrs. Emma W.
Hayden, widow of the well-known scien-
29
30
tific man, Ferdinand Venderveer Hayden,
had established a deed of trust arranging for
a sum of money and a bronze medal to be
given annually to the author of the best
publication, exploration, discovery or re-
search in geology or paleontology, or a similar
subject. Professor James Hall, of Albany,
received the award in the first instance and
the other nine succeeding him were Edward
D. Cope, 1891; Edward Suess, 1892; Thomas
H. Huxley, 1893; Gabriel August Daubree,
1894; Carl H. von Littel, 1895; Giovanni
Capellini, 1896; Alexander Petrovitz Kar-
pinski, 1897; Otto Torell, 1898; Giles
Joseph Gustav Dewalzue, 1899. In 1900
the deed of trust was modified so as to award
a gold medal every three years. The first
to receive the new medal was Sir Archibald
Geikie; the second was Dr. Charles D.
Walcott in 1908 and the third John Casper
Branner in 1911.
Tue Annual Meeting of the Board of
Trustees of the American Museum of Nat-
ural History will occur on the evening of
February first, when the members of the
Board will be guests of President Osborn at
dinner at his residence, 850 Madison Avenue.
Tue December meeting of the Section of
Biology of the New York Academy of Sciences
was devoted to a “Symposium on Porto
Rico”’ in which the progress of the Academy’s
natural history survey of that island was
described.
Professor Charles P. Berkey outlined his
geological reconnaisance of the island, in
which he and Dr. Fenner had traveled more
than two thousand miles. They had studied
the rocks at so many points that they were
enabled to construct a preliminary geological
map which revealed the general geological
history of the island.
Professor N. L. Britton outlined the pro-
gress of the botanical investigation of the
island. The material collected by the
Academy workers has been distributed to a
number of specialists and from their labors,
knowledge of the flora is rapidly being ex-
tended.
Dr. Marshal A. Howe by means of the
stereopticon illustrated a series of marine
algee which he collected recently. Espe-
cially interesting were the reef-building
coralline alge. Dr. N. Wille summarized
the present knowledge of the fresh-water
alge, in which much further collecting is
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
necessary. Mr. Roy W. Miner described
his collecting of marine invertebrates. Mr.
Frank E. Lutz in summarizing the present
knowledge of the insects and spiders touched
upon several interesting problems of distribu-
tion in which Porto Rico offers an attractive
field for further work. Mr. J. T. Nichols
described the fish fauna of the island.
THE manuscript for a book, “Men of the
Old Stone Age,’ which covers the long
Paleolithic history of Europe, was com-
pleted by Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn
during the month of November and it will
appear from the Scribner press in February.
The writing of this work was suggested by
the author’s tour through the caverns of
Italy, France and Spain, described in the
December, 1912, number of the JOURNAL.
The work differs from the volumes recently
published by Professor Sollas, Lord Avebury
and Professor James Geikie in presenting a
fuller description of the various primitive
races of men and in giving a connected story
of the geology, geography, climate, and de-
velopment of the flint industry and art. An
attempt has been made to give a very clear
and semipopular treatment of our present
knowledge of the long prehistory of Europe,
closing with the advent of the men of the
New Stone Age, which is believed to have
occurred between 7000 and 9000 years ago.
Mr. N. C. Newson has returned from
several months’ archeological field work in
New Mexico. His work this year was a
continuation of that of previous years on the
ancient villages of the Tanos, south of Santa
Fé. He made partial excavations of three
large ruins, digging out altogether about four
hundred and fifty ruins from which he brought
back approximately seven hundred specimens
for the Museum. A large number of skele-
tons were also secured, some from the ruins
and some from refuse heaps belonging to the
different villages. In his excavations Mr.
Nelson discovered a_ stratified deposit in
which four distinct types of pottery were
found. Since the pueblos clustered all about
the region belong to one or more of these
pottery-making stages, the chronological
position of most of the ruins can now be
determined on the basis of this discovery.
Str Dovuctas Mawson will lecture on
“Racing with Death in Antarctic Blizzards,”
under the auspices of the American Geo-
MUSEUM NOTES
graphical Society and the American Museum
of Natural History at Aeolian Hall, January
17, 1915. The lecture will cover Dr. Maw-
son’s experiences in the Antarctic from 1911
to 1914 and will be illustrated with still and
motion pictures which are pronounced by
Sir Ernest Shackleton, Mr. A. Radclyffe
Dugmore and others who have seen them, to
be the most marvelous pictures ever presented
on polar subjects. Professor Henry Fairfield
Osborn will preside and Dr. Mawson will be
introduced by Mr. John Greenough, chair-
man of the Council of the American Geo-
graphical Society. Dr. Mawson has recently
been knighted by George V in recognition of
his scientific research in the Antarctic. He
was well equipped for valuable work, having
been lecturer in chemistry at Sydney Uni-
versity and in geology at Adelaide University
even before he obtained his doctorate in
science in 1909. Later he was on the staff
of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expedition as
physicist and mineralogist and was one of the
party which reached the summit of Mount
Erebus and also the South Magnetic Pole.
In 1911 he organized the Australasian Ant-
arctic expedition and led it into the great
unknown region south of Australia. It is of
the story of the accomplishment and the pri-
vations and tragedies of this expedition that
Dr. Mawson will speak in New York.
Tue anthropological course of lectures for
1915 is to be devoted to the Aboriginal Art
of North American Indians. The subject
has been chosen in recognition of the increas-
ing demands of students of art and design
upon the ethnological collections in the Mu-
seum. The opening and closing lectures are
to be given by Dr. Clark Wissler; the first
will deal with “Technique and Distribution
of Textile Designs,’ and the concluding
lecture with ‘‘ Design Names and Symbolism.”
Dr. Herbert J. Spinden, who has devoted
much time to the study of the art of the
Southwest and Central America, will discuss
in the second and third lectures of the series,
“Form and Ornament in Ceramic Art” and
“History and the Higher Arts.’ These
lectures will be given in the West Assembly
hall of the Museum on Thursday evenings in
January at 8:15 o’clock.
Tue Indian figures for the Hopi group
under construction by Mr. Howard Mc-
Cormick in an alcove off the hall of the
Southwest Indians, have been modeled by
3l
Mr. Mahonri Young and are at present in
process of casting in the Museum’s prepara-
tion shop. It is understood that Mr. Young
has in charge also the pediments for the
Utah State Capitol at Salt Lake City and
that he has a group of bronzes ready for
exhibition at the San Francisco Exposition.
TuroucH the kindness of Miss M. Eliza
Audubon the Museum has recently come
into possession of a painting by John James
Audubon. This painting has been in the
Museum on deposit for some time and its
gift makes a very important addition to the
Museum’s collection of Auduboniana. It is
one of the largest of Audubon’s pictures and
is especially pleasing in composition and color.
THERE has recently been placed on exhi-
bition in the Plains Indian hall a small model
of a Hidatsa earth-lodge constructed by Mr.
S. Ichikawa after drawings made by Mr. F.
N. Wilson and plates from the early publica-
tion, Travels in the Interior of North America
by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, who visited
the Hidatsa and Mandan in 1832-1834. It
was in a village of houses of this type that
Lewis and Clark spent their first winter
(1804).
THe Museum has long been desirous of
obtaining a specimen of the devilfish (Manta
birostris), the largest of all rays. This
species, owing to its great size, the difficulty
of caring for specimens in the field and the
danger attending its capture, is very poorly
represented in museums. In fact no full-
grown specimen, so far as known, is on exhi-
bition anywhere. Last summer the Museum
sent an expedition to the west coast of Florida
for the purpose of capturing a devilfish. The
expedition succeeded in getting two speci-
mens. For the capture of these we are
indebted to Mr. Russell J. Coles of Danville,
Virginia, an amateur ichthyologist who has
had considerable experience in the capture
of large sharks. Mr. Coles was in charge
of the capturing of the specimens and did
most of the work of harpooning them.
The expedition made its headquarters at
Captive Island, about twenty-five miles
south of Punta Gorda. The two devilfish
caught were splendid specimens, the larger
one eleven feet wide and the smaller one
seven feet ten inches. ‘Excellent casts of
both specimens were made in the field by
Mr. J. C. Bell, of the Museum’s department
32 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
of preparation. The scientific work of the
expedition was in the hands of Dr. L. Hussa-
kof, who obtained, in addition to the studies
necessary for the correct mounting and color-
ing of the specimens for exhibition, valuable
data on the structure and natural history of
this little-known ray.
Two new leaflets by Dr. F. E. Lutz,
assistant curator of invertebrate zodlogy,
have recently been issued in the Museum’s
educational series. The first deals with the
thirty-four species of butterflies most common
in the vicinity of New York City, each spe-
cies being illustrated by a life-size figure.
The second gives directions for collecting and
preserving insects in the field.
Tue Peruvian and Mexican collections of
the Metropolitan Museum of Art have been
deposited with the American Museum for
an indefinite time and may be used either for
study or exhibition purposes.
THREE new exhibits of the department of
anatomy and physiology in the synoptic hall
on the third floor include a series of mounted
limb-bones, showing the adaptation of
mammalian limbs to their various modes of
living, and two series of wax models illustrat-
ing respectively the evolution of the verte-
brate chondrocranium and the brain.
Mr. Ernest THomMpson SEToN on the
evening of November 27 gave a special
lecture in the auditorium of the Museum on
“Voices of the Night,’ in which he told the
story of some of the wild animals of North
America and gave imitations of their calls.
A NEw edition of the General Guide to the
exhibition halls of the museum has just been
issued comprising 125 pages and 65 illustra-
tions. Experience has shown that the
changes in the Museum’s collections are so
extensive that a guide must be issued at least
once a year in order to keep pace with them.
Important exhibits in the department of
vertebrate paleontology have recently been
opened to the public. The first of these is a
skeleton of Scelidotherium, which is a part of
the Cope Pampean collection secured through
the generosity of the late Morris K. Jesup,
former president of the Museum. This
animal belongs to the sloth family and is
interesting anatomically in its approach to
the anteaters. Two nearly perfect skulls of
horned dinosaurs have been added to the
reptile collection. These are a part of the
collection made by the Museum expedition
to the Red Deer River, Alberta, in 1913.
The skeleton of the giant carnivorous dino-
saur, Tyrannosaurus, is being mounted in the
Pleistocene hall, and the new duck-billed
dinosaur, Corythosaurus, in the dinosaur hall.
AppITiIons to the mineral collection com-
prise an exchange with Professor W. Vernad-
sky of the Imperial Academy of Sciences
and a series of purchases made from the
interest of the Bruce endowment. The
former were interesting from locality, and
among them powellite from the Urals merits
mention. Noticeable among the purchases
are native bismuth and the association of
bismuth and molybdenite from North Queens-
land, Australia; a remarkable native copper
coated with solid malachite like a paint,
from Michigan; small delicate crystalliza-
tions of gold from Verespatak, Hungary;
deep blue halite from Stassfurt, Germany;
quartz (nodular) with inclusions of acicular
bismuth from New South Wales; a handsome
large crystallization of dioptase from South
Africa; and the new mineral wilkeite from
Riverside County, California. Some supe-
rior specimens of species already represented
were purchased, among which particular
reference may be made to catapleiite, eryo-
lithionite, eudialyte, narsarsukite, schizolite,
steenstrupine and willemite from Greenland.
Tue department of public health is at
present engaged in the preparation of a
special exhibit of military hygiene and sanita-
tion, dealing with the health of armies, the
hygiene of the individual soldier and the
general problems of camp sanitation.
A number of new exhibits illustrative of
insect-borne diseases were added to the de-
partment’s display during 1914, the most im-
portant single exhibit being a model of the flea
(carrier of bubonic plague) 1,728,000 times nat-
ural size, prepared by Mr. Ignaz Matausch.
The history of the bubonic plague in the past
is shown by reproductions of a number of
early paintings and by a series of maps
illustrating the geographic spread of disease
during its historic epidemics. A series of
photographs of four American army surgeons
who have discovered a mosquito transmis-
sion of yellow fever, has been hung near the
entrance of the hall.
The American Museum of Natural History
Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City
Open free to the public on every day in the year.
The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the
Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people. It is dependent
upon private subscriptions and the fees from members for procuring needed additions to the
collections and for carrying on explorations in America and other parts of the world. The
membership fees are,
AMA VLeMbers= sais sa sataeters ween e $ 10 Patrons actaires ce ats pes ate ale eels $1,000
Sustaining Members (annually)........ 25 Associate Benefactors..............-. 10,000
Maite IV REIT EL Saya oie nex ce sycsreret nla site sys 100 Associatem HW oundérsiic so. sae os «ae oes 25,000
EILOM SR ite ae coon ct ekeueneians Race ets aI ves 500 Benefactors: ess seek cigs Cet tes 590,000
Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request to members and teachers by the
department of public education. Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone
the department for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied. Lectures to
classes may also be arranged for. In all cases the best results are obtained with small groups
of children.
The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working collection
of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and abroad.
The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays excepted —
from 9 A.M. to5 P.M.
The Technical Publications of the Museum comprise the Memoirs, Bulletin and
Anthropological Papers, the Memoirs and Bulletin edited by J. A. Allen, the Anthropological
Papers by Clark Wissler. These publications cover the field and laboratory researches of
the institution.
The Popular Publications of the Museum comprise the JourNat, edited by Mary
Cynthia Dickerson, the Handbooks, Leaflets and General Guide. The following list gives
some of the popular publications; complete lists, of both bchoscet) and popular publications,
may be obtained from the Librarian.
POPULAR PUBLICATIONS
HANDBOOKS
Nortu AMERICAN INDIANS OF THE PLatns. By Clark
Wissler, Ph.D. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.
INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST. By Pliny Earle Goddard,
Ph.D. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.
ANIMALS OF THE Past. By Frederic A. Lucas, Sc.D.
Paper, 35 cents.
ILLUSTRATED GUIDE LEAFLETS
GENERAL GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS.
issued December, 1914. Price, 25 cents.
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A ‘‘pod”’ of fur-seal pups at an age when they can care for themselves
POI epee tee Patient
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aN
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ae
The American Museum of Natural History
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
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SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Freperic A. Lucas, Se.D., Director
Geology and Invertebrate Paleontology
Epmunp Oris Hovey, Ph.D., Curator
Cuester A. Reeps, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Mineralogy
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Woods and Forestry
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Invertebrate Zodlogy
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Frank E. Watson, B.S., Assistant
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Herpetology
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malogy
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Vertebrate Paleontology
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Emeritus
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tology
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THe American Museum JOurRNAL
VOLUME XV FEBRUARY, 1915 NUMBER 2
CONTENTS
Cover, Colonel Roosevelt in South America
Photograph by Mr. L. E. Miller
Pim sute Gent ral MPAA 6 5%... 2.4.04 Bee aa xk Deon ee THEODORE ROOSEVELT 35
Together with mention of the geographical work of the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific papegiuen
in exploring the ‘‘River of Doubt”’
Illustrations from photographs by Kermit Roosevelt, George K. Cherrie and other mem-
bers of the expedition
The Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition.................. L. E. Minter 49
A story of the journey through South America’s traveled highways and unexplored jungles,
with mention of many strange birds and beasts and descriptions of the country and the people.
Illustrations from photographs by the Author
Roosevelt’s Through the Brazilian Wilderness — A Review...... . J. A. ALLEN 64
warms the Health of Armies... 2. ....%2 £00066... e 2 C.-E. A. WINSLow_ 67
A discussion of the methods by which the armies in the field to-day are protected from dis-
ease — A comparison of the daily rations of the armies of various nations
With illustrations from models in the military hygiene exhibit at the American Museum
Home songs of the. Tewa Indians......:..../.....%.. HERBERT J. SPINDEN 73
With an eight-page insert in sepia of photographs as follows:
FHM NTC LAY CP iy nr leyc eo coe aera oie cis elo ROE -Kart Moon
The Sacred Lake of the Taos Mountains.................. H. J. SprnpEN
ETOP PT geEs ADV ee aN rors oa Seca eee chin Bite ne ay cela a FRrEepERIC MoNsEN
The Pueblo on the Valley Road......... eR Oo eens S H. J. SPrInpDEN
Hopi; Girl Grinding, Corn: 22. 5...24.. Eh gi Ree KITT of es eet Ne Kari Moon
Atthe Bridge — Sani IManPUCDIOs 25. fal ts aoe kes we ... Kart Moon
The Courtship — San Juan Pueblo....... Bh Bee eas on ie CRS ....- KARL Moon
rae WO UTAU DAT cin ek ohh eho cia ee eee Tags SR ee .H. J. SPINDEN
Memories of Professor Albert S. Bickmore ................ L. P. Gratacap 79
Pee a cet a BE eNIG Re is ae ate i 3 ee Rt. Rs a ay SS Me es oe oat 83
Mary Cyntruia Dickerson, Editor
Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History, at the
Cosmos Press, Cambridge, Mass. Terms: one dollar and a half per year, twenty cents per copy.
Entered as second-class matter January 12, 1907, at the Post-Office at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress,
July 16, 1894.
Subscriptions should be addressed to the AmericAN Museum JourNAt, 77th St. and
Central Park West, New York City.
The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum.
$e
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THe AMERICAN Musgeum Journal
VoLUME XV
Roosevelt’s canoe disappearing down Rio Téodoro, the River of Doubt.
FEBRUARY, 1915
NUMBER 2
Photo by Miller
Courtesy of Charles Scribner’s Sons
‘‘Ahead of us the brown
water street stretched in curves between endless walls of dense tropical forest.’’
ANIMALS OF CENTRAL BRAZIL!
TOGETHER WITH MENTION
OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL WORK OF THE
ROOSEVELT-RONDON SOUTH AMERICAN EXPEDITION IN
EXPLORING THE “RIVER OF DOUBT”
By Theodore Roosevelt
HEN I contemplated going on
this trip the first thing I did
was to get in touch with Dr.
Frank M. Chapman of the American
I wanted to get from him
information as to what we could do down
Museum.
there and whether it would be worth
while for the Museum to send a couple
of naturalists with me. On any trip
of this kind — on any kind of a trip I
have ever taken —the worth of the trip
1 A lecture delivered before the members of the
American Museum of Natural History, Decem-
ber 10, 1914.
depends not upon one man but upon
the work done by several men in coépera-
tion. This journey to South America
would have been not worth the taking,
had it not been for the two naturalists?
2 As the reader pursues his fascinated way
through Colonel Roosevelt's latest book, which
recounts experiences on this South American
expedition, he becomes impressed —if he is a
naturalist, with the positive stand on certain
definite points regarding natural history taken
by the Author. For instance Colonel Roosevelt
puts emphasis on the need for the protracted work
in the field of the trained observer as contrasted
with the big-game hunter or mere zodlogical col-
lector. Weconcur so fully in the point made and
in fact consider the matter of a complete scientific
35
360 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
from the American Museum who were
with me, and for the Brazilian officers
skilled in cartographical
joined the expedition.
work who
I thought of making the trip a zodlogi-
cal one only, when I started from New
headwaters of a river running north
through the center of Brazil. To go
down that river and put it on the map
would be interesting, but he wanted to
tell me that one cannot guarantee what
may happen on unknown rivers — there
In the canoe ready for the trip down the Unknown River.
Brazil
York, but when I reached Rio Janeiro the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Lauro
Miiller, whom I had known before, told
me that he thought there was a chance
of our doing a piece of geographical
work of importance. In the course of
the work of the telegraph commission
Rondon, a_ Brazilian
engineer, there had been discovered the
under Colonel
record of such pressing importance before condi-
tions be intruded upon in South America and
races pushed to the wall by civilization, that
various quotations from Colonel Roosevelt on
this point have been inserted in the captions of
the article and attention is hereby called to them
(pages 34, 43 and 45).— Tue Epiror.
Photo by Miller
At camp Rio Téodoro, Matto Grosso,
might be some surprises before we got
through. Of course we jumped at the
chance, and at once arranged to meet
Colonel Rordon and his assistants at
the head of the Paraguay, to go down
from there with them.
We touched at Bahia and Rio Janeiro
and then came down by railway across
southern Brazil and Uruguay to Buenos
Aires and went through the Argentine
over to Chili. We traveled south
through Chili and then crossed the
Andes. That sounds a very elaborate
thing to do, but as a matter of fact
LE
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SUOY 8 LaUqrulog sazipyQ fo fsajzunoy
qadasooy pusay fq oJ0Y4q
38 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
it was pure pleasure. It was a wonder- The hard work on the unknown river
ful trip. The pass through which we came during the first six weeks. In
crossed was like the Yosemite, with snow- those forty-two days we made only an
capped volcanic moun-
tains all about. After-
ward we went across
Patagonia by automobile
and then started up the
Paraguay. Our work did
not begin until we were
inside the Tropic of Cap-
ricorn. We took mules at
Tapirapoan and went up
through the high central
plateau of Brazil — nota
fertile country but I have
no question but that
great industrial commu-
nities will grow up there.
Photo by Miller
‘‘T shall never forget the spectacle in certain places on the Un-
known River where great azure blue butterflies flew about up and
down through the sunshine of the glade or over the river’’ or settled
in gleaming masses on the bank
Photo by Kermit Roosevelt
Courtesy of Charles Scribner's Son
We were little troubled by mosquitoes in the level marshy region of western Brazil. For the man
who goes through the unexplored jungle however, the real dangers lie in a menace of insects — mos-
quitoes, gnats, ticks and fire ants — and the fevers that insects cause, instead of in cayman, anaconda
or fer-de-lance, or even in the jaguar as might be supposed
ROOSEVELT-RONDON SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION 39
average of about a mile and a half a day
and toward the end we were not eating
any more than was necessary and that
The
parrots were pretty good when they were
not tough but I can assure Mr. Horna-
day that he could leave me alone in the
monkey cage at the New York Zodlogical
was largely monkey and parrot.
Gardens with perfect safety.
Both of the naturalists who were with
me and I myself were interested pri-
marily in mammalogy and ornithology.
We were not entomologists and studied
only those insects that forced themselves
There were two
or three types that were welcome. The
butterflies were really wonderful. I
shall never forget the spectacle in certain
upon our attention.
places on the Unknown River where great
azure blue but-
terflies would fly
about up and
down through the
glade or over the
river. Some of
the noises made
by insects were ex-
traordinary. One
insect similar to a
katydid made a
noise that ended
with a sound like
a steamboat whis-
tle.
We found the
mosquitoes badin
only two or three
places. On the
Paraguay marsh-
es there were
practically no
mosquitoes. In
that great marsh
country where I
should suppose
mosquitoes would
swarm, there were
Man-eating fish, piranha.
tively to Africa and India, of large man-eating carnivores by the extraordi-
nary ferocity or bloodthirstiness of certain small creatures of which the kins-
folk elsewhere are harmless.
kill swimmers, and bats the size of the ordinary ‘ flittermice’ of the northern
hemisphere drain the life-blood of big beasts and of man himself.’’
Our trouble was chiefly
These little flies were at
We had to
wear gauntlets and helmets and we had
scarcely any.
with gnats.
times a serious nuisance.
to tie the bottom of our trouser legs.
When we stopped on one occasion to
build canoes, two or three of our cam-
aradas were so crippled with the bites of
the gnats that they could hardly walk.
The wasps and stinging bees were also
very obnoxious and at times fairly dan-
gerous. ‘There were ants we called for-
aging ants that moved in dense columns
and killed every living thing that could
not get out of the way. If an animal is
picketed in the line of march of these
foraging ants, they are likely to kill it in
short time.
There is also a peculiar ant called the
Photo by Harper
Courtesy of Charles Scribner's Sons
“ South America makes up for its lack, rela-
It is only here that fish no bigger than trout
40 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
leaf ant which doesn’t eat a man but
devours his possessions instead. I met
with a tragedy one night myself. We
had come down the Unknown River and
had lost two or three canoes and had to
portage whatever we had over the
Photo by Miller
The caymans, or jacarés, of the Paraguay
region are not ordinarily dangerous to man, al-
though they sometimes become man-eaters
mountain. We had to throw away
everything that was not absolutely
necessary. I reduced my own baggage
to one change of clothing. We got into
camp late and Cherrie and I had our
two cots close together and did not get
the fly up until after dark. My helmet
had an inside lining of green and I had
worn a red handkerchief around my
neck. At night I put my spectacles
and the handkerchief in the hat. The
next morning I looked out of bed pre-
paring to get my spectacles.
red and green line.
I saw a
It was moving.
There was a procession of these leaf-
bearing ants with sections of my hand-
kerchief and hat. I had had one spare
pair of socks and one spare set of under-
clothing and I needed them both. By
morning I had part of one sock and the
leg and waistband of the underwear and
that was all. It is amusing to look back
at but it was not amusing at the time.
The most interesting fish that we
became acquainted with was called the
“cannibal fish,” the “man-eating fish.”
It is about the size of our shad with a
heavily undershot jaw and very sharp
teeth. So far as I know, it is the only
fish in the world that attacks singly or
in shoals animals much larger than itself.
Cannibal fishes swarm in most of the
rivers of the region we passed through,
in most places not very dangerous, in
others having the custom of attacking
man or animals, so that it is dangerous
for anyone to go into the water. Blood
maddens them. If a duck is shot, they
will pull it to pieces in a very few min-
utes.
This side of Corumba a boy who had
been in swimming was attacked in mid-
stream by these fishes and before relief
could get to him, he had not only been
killed but half eaten. "Two members of
our party suffered from them. Colonel
Rondon after carefully examining a
Photo by Maza
Courtesy of Charles Scribner's Sons
A non-poisonous snake, the mussurama, swallowing the deadly fer-de-lance after having killed it.
The danger from poisonous snakes in South America is very slight, ‘“much less than the danger of being
run down by an automobile at home.”’
certain spot in the river went into the
water and one of these fishes bit off his
little toe.
Unknown River, Mr. Cherrie went into
the water thinking he could take his
On another occasion on the
bath right near shore and one of the fish
bit a piece out of his leg.
One of the most extraordinary things
we saw was this. On one occasion one
of us shot a crocodile. It rushed back
into the water. The fish attacked it at
once and they drove that crocodile out
of the water back to the men on the bank.
It was less afraid of the men than of the
fish.
We were interested one day in a
certain big catfisu, like any other big
catfish except that it had a monkey
inside of it. I had never heard that a
catfish could catch monkeys but it
proved to be a fact.
at the
The catfish lives
of the water. The
monkeys come down on the ends of
branches to drink and it seems to be no
bottom
uncommon thing for the fish to come
to the surface and attack the monkey as
it stoops to drink. Our Brazilian friends
told us that in the Amazon there is a
gigantic catfish nine feet long. The
natives are more afraid of it than of the
crocodile because the crocodile can be
seen but the
too late.
‘atfish is never seen until
In the villages, poles are
stacked in the water so that women can
get their jars filled with water, these
stockades of poles keeping out the giant
crocodile and catfish. I had never seen
in any book any allusions to the fact
41
42 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
that there is a man-eating fish of this
type in the Amazon.
One day when we were going down the
Unknown River Mr. Cherrie and I in
the same canoe, we saw a flying fish.
Of course everyone knows about the
flying fish on the ocean but I had no
idea there were flying fish on the South
American streams. I very much wish
that some ichthy-
ologist would go
down to South
America and come
back with not only
a collection of the
fishes but also full
notes on their life
histories.
We did not see
very many snakes,
I suppose only
about twenty ven-
The
most venomous are
those
akin to our rattle-
omous ones.
somewhat
snakes but with no
rattles. One of the
most common is
the
known
jararaca,
in Marti-
nique as the fer-de-
One of the
biggest is called the
lance.
to develop enemies to the snakes them-
selves. Such an enemy is this mus-
surama which must be like our king
snake — but larger. The king snake is
a particularly pleasant snake; it is
friendly toward mankind, not poisonous
and can be handled freely. The scien-
tists at the laboratory brought cut a big
good-natured mussurama which I held
between my arm
and coat.» Then
they brought out
a fairly large fer-
de-lance about nine
inches shorter than
the mussurama and
warning me to keep
away, put it on the
table. Then they
told me to put my
snake where it
could get at the
fer-de-lance. I put
down my snake on
the table and it
glided up toward
the coiled fer-de-
lance. My snake
was perfectly free
from excitement
and I did not sup-
pose it meant to do
anything, that it
was
bushmaster and at-
tains a length of
about ten feet.
These snakes are
Courtesy of Charles Scribner's Sons
Boy with parakeet and young coati. Para-
keets are attractive but noisy little birds flying
to and fro in the tops of palms. Coatis in
jungle trees look like reddish lanky raccoons
and fight savagely with both teeth and claws
not hungry.
It put its “nose”
against the body of
the fer-de-lance and
moved toward the
very poisonous and
very dangerous. The mussurama is
another South American snake, and it
lives on poisonous snakes. It habitually
kills and eats these dangerous reptiles,
its most common prey being the jararaca.
I saw the feat performed at a laboratory
where poisonous snakes are being studied
to secure antidotes to the poisons and
head. The fer-de-
lance’s temper was aroused and it coiled
and struck. The return blow was so quick
that I could not see just what happened.
The mussurama had the fer-de-lance by
the lower jaw, the mouth wide open.
The latter struck once again. After that
it made no further effort to defend itself
in any way. The poisonous snake is a
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Nine-banded armadillos in sandy pasture country.
Phote by Miller
They may cur] up for protection but also may
bound off at a run as swift as a rabbit’s — as surprising to the observer as to see a turtle gallop away
highly specialized creature and _ practi-
cally helpless when once its peculiarly
specialized traits are effectively nullified
by an opponent. The mussurama killed
the snake and devoured it by the simple
process of crawling outside it. Many
snakes will not eat if people interfere
with them, but the mussurama had no
prejudices in this respect. We wanted
to take a photograph of it while eating,
so I took both snakes up and had them
photographed against a white cloth
while the feast went on uninterruptedly.
Birds and mammals
chiefly, however.
interested me
I am only an amateur
ornithologist but I saw a great deal there
that would be of interest to any of us
who care for birds. For instance there
are two hundred and thirteen families of
birds very plentiful there, either wholly
unknown to us, or at least very few of
them known.
The most conspicuous birds I saw were
members of the family of tyrant fly-
catchers, like our kingbird, great crested
flycatcher and wood pewee. All are
birds that perch and swoop for insects.
One species, the bientevido, is a big bird
like our kingbird, but fiercer and more
powerful than any northern kingbird.
One day I saw him catching fish and
little tadpoles and also J found that he
would sometimes catch small mice.
Another kind of tyrant, the red-backed
44
tyrant, is a black bird with reddish on
the middle of the back. We saw this
species first out on the bare Patagonian
plains. It runs fast over the ground
exactly like our pippit or longspur.
Curved-bill wood-hewers, birds the
size and somewhat the coloration of
veeries, but with long, slender sickle-
bills were common about the gardens
and houses.
Most of the birds build large nests.
The oven-birds build big, domed nests of
Telegraph poles offer splendid
opportunities for building nests. Some-
times for miles every telegraph pole
would have an oven-bird’s nest upon it.
These birds come around the houses.
They look a little bit like wood thrushes
and are very interesting in that they have
all kinds of individual ways. The ex-
ceedingly beautiful honey creepers are
like little clusters of jet.
mud.
They get so
familiar that they come into the house
and hop on the edge of the sugar bowl.
The people living on many of the
ranches in Brazil make us rather ashamed
for our own people. ‘The ranchmen pro-
tect the birds and it is possible to see
great jabiru storks nesting not fifty yards
from the houses, and not shy.
Most of the birds in Brazil are not
musical although some of them have
very pretty whistles. The oven-bird has
an attractive call. The bell-bird of the
gray hue (contrasted with the white bell-
bird) has a ringing whistle which sounds
from the topmost branches of the trees.
The mammals were a great contrast
to what I had seen in Africa. Africa
is the country for great game. ‘There is
nothing like that in South America.
The animals in South America are of
interest to the naturalist more than to
the person who is traveling through the
country and takes the ordinary layman’s
Only two of the animals
One of
point of view.
found there are formidable.
these is the jaguar, the king of South
American game, ranking on an equality
with the noblest beasts of the chase of
North America, second only to the huge
and fierce creatures which stand at the
head of the big game of Africa and Asia.
The great spotted creatures are very
beautiful. Like all cats they are easily
killed with a pack of hounds, but they
are very difficult to come upon other-
wise. They will charge men and some-
times become man-eaters.
Another big mammal of the Brazilian
The
white-lipped peccaries herd together in
the dense jungles in packs of thirty or
forest is the white-lipped peccary.
forty or sometimes as many as two or
three hundred. They are formidable
creatures. The young ones may be no
larger than a setter dog but they have
tusks. They surge and
charge together and I think that they
may legitimately be called dangerous.
tremendous
Photo by Miller
Colonel Roosevelt in his hunting clothes ready for the day’s start.
“T kept continually wishing that they [the naturalists of the expedition] had more time in which to
study the absorbingly interesting life-histories of the beautiful and wonderful beasts and birds we were
all the time seeing. Every first-rate museum must still employ competent collectors; but I think
that a museum could now confer most lasting benefit, and could do work of most permanent good,
by sending out into the immense wilderness, where wild nature is at her best, trained observers with
the gift of recording what they have observed. Such menshould be collectors ...., but they should....
primarily be able themselves to see, and to set vividly before the eyes of others, the full life-histories
of the creatures that dwell in the waste spaces of the world.’’ — Quoted from p. 161, Roosevelt’s Through
the Brazilian Wilderness
45
Photo by Kermit Roosevelt
Courtesy of Charles Scribner's Sons
Colonel Roosevelt’s first South American jaguar, brought down from a tree at seventy yards dis-
tance.
muscular build of the lion.
pounce on and devour large anacondas
On one oceasion Cherrie was hunting pec-
caries and the peccaries treed him. He
was up there four hours. He found
those four hours a little monotonous, I
judge. I never had any adventure with
them myself.
ing grunts.
They make queer moan-
We spent a couple of days
in getting the specimens that we brought
We had four dogs with us. The
ranchmen had loaned them to us al-
though I doubt whether they really
wished to let us have them, for the big
peccary is a murderous foe of dogs. One
of them frankly refused to let his dogs
come, explaining that the fierce wild
swine were “very badly brought up”’
and that respectable dogs and men
ought not to go near them. We might
just as well not have taken any dogs,
however. Two of them as soon as they
smelled the peccaries went home. The
46
back.
The jaguar is heavier and more powerful than the African leopard, having the stout frame and
It feeds on capybara and cayman, on peccary and deer, and will even
third one made for a thicket about a
hundred yards away and stayed there
until he was sure which would come out
ahead. The fourth advanced only when
there was a man ahead of him. The
dangerous little peccaries made fierce
moaning grunts on their way through
the jungle and rattled their tusks like
castanets whenever we came up.
Armadillos were unexpectedly inter-
esting because they ran so fast. Once
on a jaguar hunt we came upon two of
the big nine-banded armadillos, which
are called the “big armadillos.’’ The
dogs raced at them. One of the arma-
dillos got into the thick brush. The
other ran for a hundred yards with the
dogs close upon it, wheeled and came
back like a bullet right through the pack.
Its wedged-shaped snout and armored
body made the dogs totally unable to
THE ROOSEVELT-RONDON SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION 47
seize or stop it. It came back right
toward us and got into the thick brush
and so escaped. Other species of arma-
dillo do not run at all.
The anteaters, most extraordinary
creatures of this latter-day world, are
found only in South America. The
anteater is about the size of a small
black bear and has a long narrow tooth-
less snout, a long bushy tail and very
powerful claws on its fore feet. It
walks on the sides of its fore feet with
the claws curved in under the foot.
These powerful claws make it a formida-
ble enemy for the dogs.
very slowly.
But it goes
Anteaters were continu-
ally out in the big open marshes where we
got the two specimens that we sent to
the Museum. They were always on
muddy ground, and in the papyrus
swamp we found them in several inches
of water. I do not see how they con-
tinue to exist In a country with jaguars
and pumas. They are too slow to run
away and they are very conspicuous and
make no effort to conceal themselves.
The great value of our trip will be
shown only when full studies have been
made of the twenty-five hundred and
more specimens of birds and mammals
brought back. We will be able to give
for the first time an outline of the mam-
malogy and ornithology of central Brazil.
Probably the most important feature
of the trip was going down the Unknown
River, because, of course, at this stage of
geographical history it is a rare thing to
be able to put on the map a new river,
a river never explored, a river the length
of the Rhine of which not a line is to be
found on any map.
It was a journey well worth taking, a
rough trip of course, but I shall always
be more grateful than I can say to
Professor Osborn and Dr. Chapman of
the American Museum for having sent
Mr. Cherrie and Mr. Miller with me,
thus enabling me to take part in a zo6-
geographical reconnaissance of a part
of the Brazilian wilderness.
\RAN BMS RAMAN a ie
Photo by Miller
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oO
ul
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a
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uJ
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Colonel Roosevelt and Messrs. George K. Cherrie and L. E. Miller, the two representatives from
the American Museum.
[The photographs used in this article are by Mr. Miller]
THE ROOSEVELT-RONDON SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION
A REVIEW OF ITS MOVEMENTS IN SOUTH AMERICA IN 1913-14 AND OF
SOME OF ITS ZOOLOGICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
By L. E. Miller
Mammalogist of the Expedition
HE plan of the expedition, fully de-
cided upon after consultation with
the Brazilian Government on arrival
at Rio de Janeiro, took shape as
follows: to ascend the Paraguay to the high-
est navigable point, cross the vast breadth of
Matto Grosso on mule-back and descend the
unexplored Rio da Diivida. It was decided
also that the main purpose of the expedition
should be an exploration of the Rio da Diivida
with zodlogical collecting as we moved along
or as opportunity presented itself.
The steamship ‘‘ Vandyck”’ remained at
anchorage in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro
two days, which gave us ample time to view
the natural scenic wonders of the harbor, and
the beautiful city. The greater part of one
day was spent in the botanical gardens which
with the avenues of stately royal palms and
large collections of plants from all parts of
the tropical world, doubtless surpass anything
of a similar nature found in South America.
Here Colonel Roosevelt left the party, accom-
panied by his son Kermit and Doctor Zahm;
the remainder of the expedition consisting of
Mr. George K. Cherrie, Mr. Jacob Sigg, Mr.
Anthony Fiala and myself, resumed the voyage
and reached Buenos Aires six days later (Oc-
tober 27), twenty-three days after leaving
New York. Wehad stopped a day at Santos,
Brazil’s great coffee center, and another at
Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.
Although we had read and heard a great
deal about the city of Buenos Aires, we were
hardly prepared for the pleasant surprise
that awaited us. The population of this
metropolis of the south is in the neighborhood
of two millions, and the city presents a clean,
dignified appearance. There is no lack of
modern edifices, including large hotels and
splendid theatres; an electric subway was
just being opened, and the zodlogical park
49
50 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
leaves few things to be desired. The climate
also is cool and agreeable. One of the things
which especially attracted our attention
was the presence of great swarms of dragon-
flies hovering above the streets, blown into
the city by the violent winds or pamperos
which sweep across the level plains country.
Mr. Cherrie and the writer were eager to
devote every available moment to the zodlog-
ical work, so leaving Messrs. Fiala and Sigg,
whose duty it was to look after the handling
of the large amount of impedimenta, we se-
cured passage on the Argentine Northeastern
Railroad, which had just inaugurated through
service to Asuncion, Paraguay. We took
only the small amount of equipment necessary
for a few weeks’ work, as the two others
were to come up with the remainder of our
luggage via the first available freight boat.
Our train was the second to make the through
trip, and was scheduled to run biweekly. It
was composed of seven Pullmans, two baggage
cars and a dining car, and the service was
good. Leaving Buenos Aires on the after-
noon of Sunday, November 2, we reached
Rosario at about dark. Here the train was
run on to a steel boat and carried up river for
about four hours, after which it continued the
journey on the east bank of the Parana.
The next night we recrossed the river on a
ferry boat and were landed at Encarnacion,
Paraguay. Asuncion was reached late in
the afternoon of Tuesday.
The railway journey had been through
level plains country, interspersed at long
intervals with small clumps and strips of low
woods; but it is essentially a grazing country,
and we passed numerous herds of cattle con-
tentedly grazing in the vast, fence-inclosed
ranges. Stalking calmly among the herds
were small bands of rheas, semi-domesticated,
but they were not abundant. I doubt if we
saw thirty during the entire trip. Caracaras,!
glossy ibises, jacanas,” rails and spur-winged
plovers were numerous along the line, and
frequently we saw the domed mud-nests of
the oven-bird perched upon fence-posts or
lower branches of trees. Villages are few
and far between, and the natives, a motley
crowd of dark-skinned individuals, usually
left their shambling, grass-thatched huts and
came down en masse to see the train.
Asuncion is a quaint old town, plainly
1Caracara: a member of the hawk family.
2 Jacana: a bird that combines certain charac-
teristics of both plover and rail.
showing the marks of violence that have been
left by frequent revolutions. Mr. Ferris,
the American Consul, who rendered us every
courtesy possible during our stay in the city,
had witnessed five revolutions during his five
years’ residence in the capital; there had been
seven presidents in the same period of time.
The streets are narrow and paved with
cobblestones; the buildings are of the usual
adobe style, white-washed and with tile roofs.
There are one or two banks, a college, several
churches, a public market and a number of
good hotels, as well as fair electric car and
light service; there is also the inevitable
lottery. There is practically no business
activity. An air of depression hangs over
the people like a pall, and this may readily
be accounted for when one recalls the tragic
history of their country. Many of the women
were in deep mourning, and one authority
estimated that the proportion of women to
men in the country was eleven to one,
but I cannot vouch for the accuracy of his
statement.
After spending a few days at Asuncion,
we were invited to the home of Professor
Fiebrig, who lives at Trinidad, a short dis-
tance away. Professor Fiebrig is a scientist
of more than local note, an instructor in the
University of Paraguay and curator of the
Museum. Our first zodlogical work was done
on his estate. All about were tracts of low
forest of considerable size, patches of brush
country, grassy fields and cultivated plots.
Birds were very abundant, and as practically
everything was new to us, our work was
doubly interesting. We here formed our
first intimate acquaintance with the peculiar
white ani! (Guwira), large flocks of which were
in the palm trees. The birds sat soberly on
their perches, awkwardly jerked their tails
from side to side and mewed dolefully.
They seemed to be utterly out of place among
the vivacious tanagers, creepers and finches,
and to belong more properly to the fauna of
some remote and unrecorded past. Mam-
malian life was scarce, but considermg the
short time available, a comparatively repre-
sentative collection was made, including a
series of a small rare wolf (Canis). We spent
four days at Trinidad.
Through the courtesy of the President of
the Republic, a launch was placed at our
disposal, and on November 11 we started on
1 Member of a subfamily of the cuckoos.
THE ROOSEVELT-RONDON SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION ol
a short voyage up the Rio Pilecomayo into
the Grand Chaco of Paraguay. We reached
a small settlement called Porto Galileo that
night, where we were the guests of the ‘‘Que-
bracho”’ Company. A large mill had been
erected for the extraction of tannin from logs
brought in from the surrounding country,
and a narrow-gauge railway was being con-
structed in the interior, a distance of sixty
kilometers, fifteen kilometers of which was
already in operation. We proceeded to the
end of the line and pitched camp on the bank
of a small stream, the Rio Negro, infested
with piranhas.
Our camp was merely a rough shed built
of sheets of corrugated iron supported on
poles driven into the ground. The river
water was salt and unfit for use, so each
morning several large jugs of drinking water
were sent us from Porto Galileo, together
with a supply of fresh provisions. All
about lay marshes, swamps and large grass-
The public market place in Asuncion, Paraguay.— Asuncion, which has been the scene of five
revolutions in as many years, shows plainly the marks of violence which it has suffered.
An air of de-
pression hangs over the city, business activity is at a standstill and women are seen everywhere in deep
mourning
Fort Coimbra on the Paraguay River.— Built on the rocky hillside near the dividing line between
Brazil and Bolivia, it has figured in many of the conflicts between these two countries
52 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
covered areas, the latter type of country pre-
dominating.
It is in the dark swamps that the precious
quebracho trees grow. It was also from these
same swamps that clouds of ravenous mos-
quitoes issued with the first signs of failing
daylight, and drove us to the refuge of our
net-covered hammocks. There we sweltered
through the long hours of the night, listening
to the angry buzzing of our outwitted assail-
ants, which was not unlike the sound pro-
duced by a swarm of enraged bees. I could
distinguish a number of different pitches and
qualities in the music, blending harmoniously
in one general chorus. The varying size of
the insects, which ranged from individuals
nearly an inch long to the small, infection-
bearing Anopheles, doubtless accounts for the
different tones produced by the vibrations of
the wings. Small brockets! were plentiful in
1 Brocket: a small South American deer having
unbranched horns.
/
Through the courtesy of the Brazilian government, the steamer ‘‘ Nyoac’’ was turned over to the
expedition for its exclusive use.
traveled wherever they wished
The men of the expedition lived on board for many weeks and
A portion of the expedition’s camp at Utiarity, a village occupied by Parecis Indians.
It is half
a mile away that the river dashes over a precipice two hundred and fifty feet high. This proved to
be a profitable collecting place for small rodents, birds and a few larger mammals
THE ROOSEVELT-RONDON SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION 53
the swamp and came out into the fields to
feed morning and night, and in the tall grass,
cavies! abounded. Ocelots had worn well-
defined paths through the fields in their
nightly raids on the cavy community. In
the trees we found black howlers, night
monkeys and tayras?; on the ground, opos-
sums and various small rodents held sway.
When time permitted us to take a few
moments’ recreation, we fished for piranhas *
in the stream, the ravenous creatures throw-
ing each other clear of the water in their
frantic struggles to get at the meat, bait.
After a profitable week’s work on the Pil-
comayo we returned to Asuncion, where we
were joined by the two commissaries who had
just arrived with the equipment. Two days
later we boarded the comfortable little
steamer ‘‘Asuncion”’ and sailed for Corumba.
The four and a half days’ trip on the Paraguay
was most interesting, although the heat was
intense and insects at times were trouble-
some. We had entered the great pantanal
country, and the vast marshes teemed with
bird life. As the ‘‘ Asuncion”’ plowed her way
through the water, countless thousands of
cormorants and anhingas‘ took wing; lining
the pools and dotting the marshes were
hordes of wood and scarlet ibises, together
with herons and a sprinkling of spoonbills;
egrets covered the small clump of trees as
with a mantle of snowy white, and long lines
of jabirus patrolled both shores. Scarcely
a moment passed in which we did not see
hundreds of birds. Many of the passengers
were armed with rifles and revolvers, with
which they kept up more or less of a fusillade
on the feathered folk, but fortunately their
aim was poor so that little injury was inflicted.
The day before reaching Corumbd we passed
an interesting old land-mark, the fort of
Coimbra, built on a rocky hillside with a
cluster of thatch-roofed huts nestling against
the base. It is near the Bolivian border and
in by-gone years figured prominently in
several of the bloody controversies between
the neighboring republics.
Corumb4 is a very hot, dusty town built
1Cavy: a rodent of South America allied to
the guinea pig and capybara.
2Tayra: a South American mammal resem-
bling the weasels and martins.
3 Piranha: the most ferocious small fish in the
world, a deadly enemy of man, known as the can-
nibal fish. It is generally about twelve inches
in length.
4 Anhinga: the American snake-bird.
on a high rocky elevation on the west bank
of the Paraguay. The city bears the unenvi-
able reputation of being the rendezvous for
fugitives from justice from many climes,
but we saw nothing of the lawlessness and
disorder which was said to prevail, and the
treatment we received was all that could be
desired.
Having heard of a place called Uructim,
but a short distance away, which seemed to
offer unusual opportunities for collecting, Mr.
Cherrie and the writer immediately moved to
that place and established headquarters.
Uructim proved to be a garden spot of clear,
coll springs, shady groves, and plantations
of tropical fruits and vegetables. Easy of
access were fields, forested hillsides, marshes
and lagoons in which dwelt an abundant and
varied fauna. Swarms of bats of several spe-
cies inhabited the mango trees as well as the
culverts and manganese mines in the hillsides,
and furnished an unfailing supply of mate-
rial; squirrels, coatimondis,!| monkeys and
marmosets lived in the trees; on the forest
floor ranged agoutis,? deer and peccaries.
Traps left overnight, caught wooly opossums
(Metachirus), small rodents and giant black
lizards that fought viciously when we sought
to release them. One of the mammals added
to the collection at Uructim was of unusual
interest; it was the formidable guaraguasi,
a yellow wolf which equals or exceeds in size
the great gray wolf of our own north woods;
it is an animal of solitary habits and is so
rare that it is seldom met with. It was not
previously represented in the American Mu-
seum’s collection. From the hosts of birds,
we secured pigmy owls, tinamous, thrushes,
grebes, rails and ant birds that were out of
the ordinary. We spent nearly three weeks
at Uructim, and each day we added a number
of species that were new to us. In the mean-
time, Colonel Roosevelt and his Brazilian
escort had reached Curumb4, and a hunting
trip on the Rio Taquary had been planned
to secure specimens of the large game that is
found in that region.
December 16 found the hunting party
aboard the ‘‘Nyoac” steaming up the
Taquary. This boat had been placed at the
disposal of the expedition by the Brazilian
1 Coatimondi: also costimundi and more popu-
larly known as coati. An American carnivorous
quadruped, most nearly related to the racoon,
called also tejou.
2 Agouti: arodent about the size of the rabbit.
o+ THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Government, and was our “home’’ during
the weeks that followed, until we reached
Porto Campo. Besides Colonel Roosevelt,
there were on board, Colonel Candido Mari-
ano da Silva Rondon, Mr. Kermit Roosevelt,
Captain Amilcar de Magalhées, Mr. Reis
the photographer, a physician, a taxidermist
and myself. Mr. Cherrie remained at Uru-
cim to finish the work in that locality, and
the commissaries were detained in Corumba.
We reached the landing at the Estate Palmi-
ras just at dusk and spent the night aboard,
preparing the skin of a giant anteater which
had been shot by Colonel Roosevelt near the
river. Early next morning the party was
in the saddle, galloping across the grassy
marshes. Here and there small clumps of
trees and thorny bushes dotted the marshes,
and these were teeming with birds of many
species: parrots, parrakeets and macaws
flashed by with raucous shrieks, and fly-
catchers calmly surveyed the cavalcade from
the uppermost branches. Occasionally we
flushed a small flock of teals and, in the
distance we saw ibises and jabirus standing
in the long grass, like white specks in a sea of
green. In spots the marshes were drying, the
ground covered with fish; in the small pools
an almost solid mass of fishes wriggled in the
shallow water which had been churned into
thin mud, and at the borders, numbers con-
stantly leapt out; the ground wasstrewn with
the dead and dying myriads of many species.
The ranch house or fazenda was reached
at noon; it was an interesting place, the long,
low rambling buildings forming a square
with an open court in the center in which
trees and flowers grew, and chickens and pigs
roamed at will. All about lay marshes,
papyrus swamps, fields and forests. Num-
erous herds of half-wild cattle grazed on this
vast range, and in the papyrus thickets,
marsh deer were not uncommon. The main
object of this excursion, was the lordly
jaguar and a magnificent pair were taken by
Colonel Roosevelt and his son after several
all-day hunts. Another giant anteater, sev-
eral deer and a capybara! were collected; also
a splendid series of the rare and beautiful
byacinthine macaw was added to our rapidly
growing list of treasures.
Returning to Curumb4 on the evening of
December 24, we were joined by the other
members of the expedition and immediately
1Capybara: the largest existing rodent, re-
sembling the guinea pig.
proceeded on the up-river voyage toward
Sao Luis de Caceres. A short side trip was
made up the Rio Sao Lourengo, with brief
stops at various points where there were
evidences of game; and numbers of birds,
including screamers, penelopes,! parrots and
various species of water-fowl were collected,
also numbers of small rodents, monkeys,
deer and pecearies. The jabiru storks were
nesting on the Sao Lourengo, their great
platform nests of sticks perched in the
crotches of giant trees. The young storks,
two in number and fully feathered, were
continually exercising their limbs by running
back and forth in the nest, flapping their
wings all the while, preparatory to launching
forth into the big world.
Caymans were particularly plentiful in the
Upper Paraguay. Scores of the evil-looking
creatures lay on the sand banks, with wide-
open mouths and staring glassy eyes. A
fringe of trees flanked the water through
which we could see the boundless wastes of
pantanals beyond; troops of black howling
monkeys ambled leisurely away as the boat
drew near, and a species of curious gray-
throated parrakeet was building tremendous
nests in the branches; occasionally in the
same tree there were two or three nests each
several feet in diameter, which the birds were
entering and leaving like bees at a hive.
Sado Luis de Caceres was reached January
15, and at noon the next day the ‘‘ Nyoac”’
weighed anchor again and pointed her nose
up-stream. That night we reached a small
station known as Porto Campo, and as the
river was too shallow to permit the steamer
to ascend further, our effects were taken
ashore and tents erected for a temporary
camp. A few days’ hunt at this point re-
sulted in an addition to the collection of
tapirs and white-lipped peccaries shot by
Colonel Roosevelt, besides a goodly amount
of smaller material. The preservation of
the larger specimens was somewhat of a
problem as the time at our disposal was
wholly inadequate, and there was practically
no available native help. All the skinning
and preparation was done by Kermit Roose-
velt and the writer, although at times valu-
able assistance was rendered by Mr. Sigg.
January 13 found the expedition aboard a
launch (one boatload had preceded us)
struggling against the swift current of the
1 Penelope: a small South and Central Ameri-
can bird, a small curassow, related to the guan.
THE ROOSEV ELT-RONDON
Sepotuba. A heavy houseboat-full of provi-
sions and luggage was towed alongside and
we made slow progress. There is an end to
all things of earth however, and the end of
our river journey came on January 16. We
had reached Tapirapoan, the furthest out-
post on the frontier, and immediately prepa-
rations were begun for our long dash across
the chapadao of Matto Grosso.
Tapirapoan presented a scene of festive
gaiety upon the arrival of the expedition at
that point. The large, open square around
which clustered the low mud-walled huts was
decorated with lines of pennants, while the
American and Brazilian flags fluttered from
tall poles. Flag-raising and lowering was
always an impressive ceremony; everybody
lined up and stood at attention while the ban-
ners were solemnly raised or lowered, as the
case might be, to the strains of martial music.
A large number of horses, mules and oxen
had been gathered from the surrounding
country; the army of natives or camaradas
who were to have charge of them and the
impedimenta, had assembled, and the ware-
rooms were filled with cases and bags of
provisions and equipment. To organize
properly a cavalcade of such large propor-
tions required some little time, but within six
days after our arrival order had been restored
out of chaos and the first detachment of the
expedition started. This included all of the
Americans, and several Brazilians to whose
number Lieutenants Jodo Lyra and Joaquin
de Mello Filho had been added. Captain
Amilear was to follow the next day with the
remainder of the caravan. This division of
the party was absolutely necessary as, on ac-
count of the great quantity of men and ani-
mals required, the expedition would have
been unwieldly if it had attempted to move
in one body.
The first day’s ride was a short one. Early
in the morning the men started to load the
pack animals, many of which were apparently
fresh from the ranch and had never been
broken to work of any kind, so there was a
good deal of confusion at first. But gradu-
ally the men became more adept at their
work, the mules and oxen quieted down and
little squads left the corrals, wound up the
trail and disappeared in a cloud of dust. We
did not follow until noon. Our mounts were
good strong animals; we had both horses
and mules, and comfortable saddles were also
provided by the Brazilian Commission. A
SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION ay)
four hours’ canter through brush and forest-
covered country brought us to the Sepotuba
again, quite some distance above Tapira-
poan, and we crossed the stream on a pontoon
ferry made by laying a platform of boards
across three dugout canoes. There were a
number of new palm-leaf houses on the river-
bank, so these were used for the night’s camp
instead of erecting the tents.
Next day we were in the saddle by nine,
riding through tall virgin forest with occa-
sional stretches of sandy soil in which only
low bushes grew. It was evident as we pene-
trated farther into the interior that the forest
zone was fast disappearing, to be replaced
by the vast chapaddo.!. The heat was intense;
there was no rain, and troublesome insects
were lacking. At three o’clock in the after-
noon we entered an old clearing. Formerly
rice, plantains, mandioca? and corn had been
cultivated here, but now the place was de-
serted and overgrown with weeds. Kilo-
meter 52, as the spot was called, had been an
important camp of the telegraph commission
while work was being prosecuted in that
region, but had long since been abandoned.
On January 23, a 32-kilometer ride took
us to the site of an old Indian village, known
as Aldeia Queimada. We were adhering
closely to the telegraph line, following the
wide swathe that had been cleared to protect
the wires from falling trees and branches,
except when a short detour was desirable to
find a better crossing for some small stream.
The country was of a gently undulating char-
acter, covered with wiry grass and a very
sparse growth of stunted, gnarled trees. This
vegetation is typical of the chapadao. With
the exception of a few small deer and a num-
ber of birds (woodhewers and jays) there were
no evidences of animal life. A clear, cold
spring rippled over a pebbly bottom near our
night’s camp. It was the last stream we
should see which discharged its water (via the
Sepotuba) into the Rio de la Plata system.
Colonel Rondon had employed a number of
motor trucks in constructing the telegraph
line through this section of the country, sev-
eral of which were still in serviceable condi-
tion. It was therefore decided that a part of
the luggage should be sent ahead on the cars
as far as the trail permitted, and as there
1 Chapadao: high, nearly level upland covered
with scanty scrubby forest.
2Mandioca: also called “‘manioc’’,
sava-plant.
the cas-
56 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
would be a wait of several days while the re-
mainder of the expedition caught up, Mr.
Cherrie and I went along to devote to collect-
ing the time thus gained. Doctor Zahm and
Mr. Sigg accompanied us. We started
two days beyond Aldeia Queimada, from a
point called Rio Mandioca. There were three
trucks, great well-built machines of German
make [Saurer], laden to their fullest capacity
with the heaviest and most cumbersome
pieces of the baggage. It wasa strange sight
to see them racing across the uninhabited
chapaddo, at a speed of thirty miles an hour,
and frequently through blinding rain and
deep mud. One of the cars had a full-blooded
Indian mechanician who seemed to be fully
initiated into the mysteries of handling an
automobile, from gathering up branches and
Parecis Indians playing head-ball— The men show wonderful dexterity in striking with their heads
the hollow rubber sphere a foot in diameter which they manufacture for the game.
this game is played by no other tribe of Indians
So far as is known
Native Parecis Indians returning from the field.— These semi-civilized Indians raise large crops of
mandioca, corn and sweet potatoes and make clothing, hammocks and various articles for ornamental
purposes
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THE ROOSEVELT-RONDON SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION a9
stones with which to fill up the roadway when
the broad wheels mired deep in the loose sand,
to repairing the engines on the rare occasions
when such a procedure was necessary.
We reached the Rio Sacre, beyond which
point the trucks could not proceed, on the
evening of the 28th. The river is here broken
by a fall one hundred and fifty feet high. As
elsewhere in South America, we
were constantly reminded of
the appalling lack of animal
life. During the entire three
days required to reach the Rio
Sacre we saw only a few rheas,
a seriema ! or two, and a num-
ber of deer.
On the morning of the 29th,
we crossed the Sacre on a pon-
toon ferry, and using a number
of animals which had been held
in readiness there, rode the two
leagues to Utiarity, a village of
the Parecis Indians; the Rio
Papagaio, a clear, swift stream
flows past the settlement, and
half a mile away dashes over
the brink of a precipice two
hundred and fifty feet high.
The Parecis are a small tribe
of semi-civilized Indians who
live in substantial huts and cul-
tivate large fields of mandioca,
corn and sweet potatoes. Some
of them wore clothes while
many wore only a breech-cloth
of their own weaving. They
also make hammocks and vari-
ous articles for ornamental pur-
poses. The youths of the tribe
engaged in a curious game of
head-ball, using for the purpose
a hollow rubber sphere a foot
in diameter, which they them-
selves manufacture. They
chose sides and batted the ball
back and forth across a line,
with their heads. The hands
were not used, and they dis-
played remarkable dexterity
and tireless energy at this form
of amusement. One evening
just before sundown, practi-
cally all of the men joined in
1Seriema: a large, long-legged
crested bird, probably related to
the cranes.
a sacred dance. For this occasion they were
clothed in gaudy red head-bands from which
protruded the brilliant feathers of the great
blue and yellow macaw; bead neck-chains
and belts, and anklets made of bunches of
curious dry seeds which kept up a continuous
rattling sound as the dancers stamped in
rhythm with the low, wailing music of reed
be Pe Ms
Type of Indian assistants or camaradas, who were employed
by the expedition to take charge of the horses, mules and oxen
and the impedimenta
60 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
flutes. They stopped frequently to drink
chicha,! and at intervals they sang the names
of their dead warriors and mighty hunters,
and called upon them for guidance and
assistance.
Utiarity proved to be a profitable collecting
place. Many small rodents and a few larger
mammals, including a soft-shelled armadillo
collected by Colonel Roosevelt, were taken,
besides a number of birds. We spent five
days in the village (Colonel Roosevelt ar-
rived three days after we did) at the end of
which time Doctor Zahm accompanied by
Mr. Sigg left the party and started back
home. A short time later Mr. Fiala began
his homeward trip down the Papagaio and
Tapajos.
Utiarity had been the first telegraph
station in operation along the new line; the
second was on the banks of the Rio Juruena,
approximately one hundred kilometers away,
and it required five days to reach this point.
We had been compelled to reduce the amount
of our baggage very materially shortly after
leaving the Parecis village, as many of the
cargo animals had given out on the trail,
and the others were weakening perceptibly.
Most of the tents were abandoned, and all
superfluous clothing was left behind. The
equipment for collecting and _ preserving
specimens, unfortunately had to be reduced
also, on account of its weight, so that we
retained only a few hundred cartridges and
about a dozen traps with which to prosecute
the natural history work. This reduction of
the impedimenta was unavoidable and af-
fected every member of the party either
directly or indirectly. It was one of the sev-
eral instances where individual interests had
to be sacrificed for the good of the whole
expedition.
At Juruena we made the acquaintance of a
primitive tribe of Indians who probably
represent the lowest type of civilization to be
found anywhere on the South American
continent. They are known as the Nhambi-
quara. As we drew up on the river bank
they gathered about and stared at the party
curiously, but betrayed no hostile feelings.
Colonel Rondon had but recently succeeded
in establishing amicable relations with them.
On his first visits to the country, numbers
of his men had been slain by their poisoned
1Chicha: a fermented drink made from maize
or cane sugar.
arrows, and they had resented his every step
into their stronghold; but having been
persistently treated with kindness, they
have learned to look upon him as a friend,
and some of them even appeared to be
heartily glad to see him.
In stature the Nhambiquara is short, but
well-built, and of a very dark brown color.
Clothes are absolutely unknown to them,
and practically the only ornaments in their
possession are strings of beads which they
had received from Colonel Rondon. Some
of the men have the nose and upper lip
pierced and wear pieces of slender bamboo
in these perforations. Their huts or malo-
cas are rude structures of grass or leaves,
and they cultivate small areas of mandioca,
but wild fruits, game and wild honey form
the principal articles of their diet. Bows
six feet tall and made of palm wood, and
long bamboo arrows are used both in hunting
and in warfare. Frequently hunting parties
go on long tramps through the jungle, sub-
sisting entirely on the fruits of their prowess.
At night a rude lean-to is built of branches,
the game is roasted in a roaring fire and eaten,
and then they stretch themselves on the bare
ground to sleep.
We remained a day at Juruena to rest and
to develop films. The pictures taken by the
various members of the party form one of
the important records of the expedition, and
great care has to be exercised in developing
all exposed films promptly or they would be
spoiled because of the hot, damp climate.
The country beyond the Juruena is some-
what rolling, but there is no appreciable
change in the vegetation. We rode twenty
kilometers the first day, camping on the
banks of the Rio do Fomiga (February 10).
Next day we travelled but twelve kilometers,
reaching the Jurina, a shallow though rapid
stream six hundred feet wide; the crossing
was slow and laborious as there was only a
very small balsa or ferry. Camp was pitched
a league beyond, on the banks of a small
stream. Near by were several deserted
thatched huts, and the comparatively new
graves where three Brazilians, one an army
officer, had been buried. They had been
slain by the Nhambiquara and buried in an
upright position with the head and shoulders
protruding above the ground. The following
night, on the Rio Primavera we saw two
other graves. The two men who had been
interred here were slain while asleep in their
THE ROOSEVELT-RONDON SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION 61
hammocks. This was the most dangerous
part of the whole Nhambiquara country.
Campos Novos was reached February 16.
Formerly the third telegraph station was
located here, but it now stands on the Rio
Nhambiquara, a league away. We were on
the border of the great Cerro de Norte, a
vast tract of country comprised of high,
broken plateaus or mesas covered with
luxuriant grass. Many small streams flowed
through deep gorges, and
near some of the water-
courses, tall dense forest
grew. ‘The soil is fertile
and would produce crops
of corn and rice; cattle in
great numbers could be
reared on the extensive
mesas, and the climate is
cooland healthful. There
are few portions of South
America so well suited for
colonization by Euro-
peans, but on account of
the remote location and
the lack of means of com-
munication, it will be
several decades before this
vast and fruitful region
will become inhabited.
After leaving the Cerro
de Norte, February 23, we
again entered chapaddao
country; but the wiry
grass and stunted trees
were gradually being su-
perceded by forest. Occa-
sionally all other vegeta-
tion gave way to large
areas of wild pineapples.
There were many square
miles of them, bearing
fruit which was small but
of delicious flavor.
We added few speci-
mens to the collections
after leaving Utiarity. Animal life was not
abundant, and the rapid pace at which the
expedition was compelled to move left no
time for collecting. At José Bonofacio,
which was reached February 23, an interest-
ing rodent, somewhat resembling a gopher,
was taken. In order to secure the single
example it required a half day’s time and the
assistance of five Nhambiquara. A reward
of bunches of coral beads had been offered
the Indians if the animal was secured, so
they immediately began work with sharpened
sticks and with their hands. By noon they
had excavated ten cubic yards of earth
and won the prize. The expedition had
gone on ahead but was overtaken in the
evening.
At a camp named Siete de Setembre the
two divisions of the expedition were reunited.
Captain Amilear and his party had arrived a
Parecis babies at Utiarity
day or two before, and a halt was made to di-
vide the equipment and provisions between
what were to be the Duvida and Gy Parana
parties. The Rio da Divida was only ten kilo-
meters away, and on February 27 we stood on
the bridge that spans the river and watched
Colonel Roosevelt and his party in seven
canoes disappear down the stream. Colonel
Roosevelt was accompanied by his son Ker-
mit, Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Lyra, Mr.
62 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Cherrie and Doctor Cajazeira, and fifteen
native assistants.
The Gy Parand party was composed of
Captain Amilear, Lieutenant Mello, a geol-
ogist, a taxidermist and myself, besides a
number of natives. We traveled three days
longer to reach the Commemoracao. The
spot was called Barao de Melgaco, and
marked practically the end of the telegraph
line. The trip from Tapirapoan to the Com-
memoracao had required exactly forty days;
the distance is approximately five hundred
and forty-eight miles. Many of the pack
animals were in such poor condition that they
had to be shot. It is impossible to say how
many had been lost on the way, but the num-
ber was very large.
Barao de Melgacgo seemed to be the head-
quarters of annoying
insects and disease.
Most of the handful
of men at work on the
telegraph line were
ill with fever and
beriberi, and there
had been twelve
deaths just before
our arrival.
We had expected
to find canoes await-
ing us, but as there
were none, the men
cut down a tree of
ample size and began
making one. ‘This
work, we estimated,
would require a
month; but after a
wait of two weeks a
large canoe arrived
from down river.
The time at Barao
de Melgago was
profitably if not
pleasantly spent. All
about the little clear-
ing rose the stately
Amazonian forest,
providing admirable
collecting grounds.
Many birds’ and
mammals were ta-
ken, all new to the
collection. The lat-
ter included an un-
described spider mon-
key and a saki! of a
new genus.
We started down
the Commemoracao
1 Saki: a South Amer-
ican monkey with a
bushy tail and a ruff
of long hair around the
face.
Photo by Cherrie
Nhambiquara women and children with baskets of vegetables from the field
THE ROOSEVELT-RONDON SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION 63
March 13, and traveling rapidly with the
current reached the Pimiento Bueno, eighty
kilometers below, that night. The junction
of the two rivers forms the Gy Parand.
The Gy Paranda at its very beginning is a
mighty river, a thousand yards wide, and
day by day as we raced with its swirling tor-
rent we watched its rapid growth until near
the mouth it reached a breadth of at least
two miles. The country on both banks is
heavily forested, and along the upper course
is inhabited by a tribe of Indians which had
been absolutely unknown. We were the first
white men to see them, and they had never
seen white men before. In appearance they
differed greatly from their neighbors, the
Nhambiquara. We met seven, all men,
and finally induced them to accept gifts of
beads and knives, in return for which they
gave us wonderfully decorated arrows six
feet tall.
The Gy Parandi abounds in formidable
rapids, like many South American rivers, and
we had numerous overland portages, the long-
est being about three miles, around the falls of
Sao Vicente. Insects are abundant, and the
whole region is a vast breeding ground for
malaria. A number of rubber camps are sit-
uated on the lower river, the forests being rich
in hevea. We reached Manaos April 10,
having stopped at Calama, a station on the
Madeira, for a short period of collecting.
As the Ditvida party had not arrived, I
almost immediately left for the Rio Solimoes
where several weeks were spent to advantage
adding to the collections. Among the large
number of specimens collected were agoutis,
woolly monkeys, squirrel monkeys, sloths,
many small rodents and squirrels, all new to
us; and the complete material for a group of
hoatzins or lizard-birds was also collected.
The collections now numbered about fifteen
hundred birds and about four hundred and
fifteen mammals, practically all of species
unknown to us, and some of which are no
doubt new to science.
Colonel Roosevelt’s party reached Manaos
the last day of April, but the story of their
experiences on the unexplored river is too
well known to warrant review.
Loading canoes for the start down the Rio da Davida
ROOSEVELT’S ‘‘THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN
WILDERNESS”!
By J. A. Allen
N a volume of four hundred pages,
with numerous half-tone illustra-
tions, Colonel Roosevelt has given
a charming narrative of his eventful
expedition through a little known part
of the Brazilian hinterland. The main
journey of exploration was up the
Paraguay River to its source, across the
low divide to the head of the Gy-Parané,
and down the unexplored “River of
Doubt” (Rio da Ditivida), now the
charted Rio Téodoro,? as since named by
the Brazilian Government, in honor of
the eminent American field naturalist,
its first explorer.
The trip had been for a considerable
time in contemplation, but the initiative
steps were only taken early in June,
1913, following a luncheon at the Ameri-
can Museum at which both Father Zahm,
one of Roosevelt’s companions on the
expedition, and Colonel Roosevelt were
guests. As told by the author in his
first chapter, entitled “The Start,”
Curator Chapman of the Museum sug-
gested the codperation of the Museum,
and brought the matter to the attention
of President Osborn, who cordially ap-
proved the plan. As a result, Colonel
Roosevelt offered to take two natura-
1 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS. By
Theodore Roosevelt. With illustrations from
photographs by Kermit Roosevelt and other
members of the Expedition. New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons. 1914. S8vo., pp. xiv+ 383, 49
full-page half-tone plates and 2 maps.
2 Besides this general review and consideration
from the zodlogical standpoint by Dr. Allen, the
JOURNAL will print in the March issue a review
by Dr. W. L. G. Joerg of the American Geographi-
cal Society. Dr. Joerg will review Through the
Brazilian Wilderness from the standpoint of the
geographical work accomplished by the Roosevelt
expedition. — Ture Epiror.
64
lists, to be selected by the Museum, as
members of the expedition. Fortunately
the Museum was able to secure George
Kk. Cherrie, widely known as a field
naturalist and explorer in the American
tropics, as one of its representatives,
and for the other Leo E. Miller, who was
already in the employ of the Museum in
South America, and had shown unusual
efficiency as a collector and field natur-
alist through several years of difficult
The two men proved to be
most congenial companions for the head
of the expedition, resulting in har-
monious and enthusiastic team work.
For some months in advance of the
journey down the Diivida, Cherrie and
Miller were making good use of their
time, collecting birds and mammals for
the Museum on the upper Paraguay
River, Colonel Roosevelt was
engaged with his lecture tour to the
principal cities of southern South Amer-
ica. Later Cherrie accompanied him
down the Rio Madeira, Miller again
joining the main party at Manaos. The
success of the natural history work is
already a matter of record in the
AMERICAN MusEuM JOURNAL.
The narrative, Through the Brazilian
Wilderness, is a book of unusual interest
for the lay reader and one of rare charm
for the naturalist and explorer. The
pages teem with information about the
country, its natural history, its economic
resources and its human inhabitants,
whether wild unclad Indians or Euro-.
pean colonists, written with the inspira-
tion that only the fresh impressions of
daily events and experiences, jotted
service.
while
ROOSEVELT’S “ THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS” 65
down in the field, can impart. Add to
this the personality of the writer, his
wide interests, exceptionally varied ex-
periences and the knowledge of an expert
in many lines of natural history research,
and the elements are happily all present
for the production of a book of just the
kind the author has given us. The
excellent illustrations with which it
abounds add greatly to its value, graphi-
cally reproducing scenes and animals
mentioned in the text.
The journey down the River of Doubt
tory collector, and no museum in Amer-
ica possessed specimens of the birds and
mammals of the country visited. The
five hundred mammals and two thousand
five hundred birds obtained, thus add
enviable riches to the resources of the
Museum. They prove not only to con-
tain a considerable number of species
new to science, particularly among the
mammals, but also all are new to the
American Museum as well as to the avail-
able material for research in America.
The species that are not new are of quite
Capybaras of Brazil are pig-like rodents, as large as small sheep, which swim and dive with great
facility, often hiding under the water lilies of the pond with only the nostrils at the surface.
If the expedition shot a capybara and it fell into the water, it
their greatest enemy is the jaguar.
Perhaps
was devoured in a very few moments by piranhas, the cannibal fishes
proved one of great danger and much
hardship, and only the fitness of the
party for difficult undertakings saved
the expedition from complete disaster.
All this is simply told, such experiences
being accepted as part of the day’s work
in the exploration of unknown wilds.
The physiographic and natural his-
tory observations so well set forth in the
narrative are immensely supplemented
by the large collections secured and
safely transported to New York. Only
small portions of the country traversed
had ever been visited by a natural his-
as much importance as those that are so,
since they throw new light upon the
faunal characteristics of an almost un-
known country, and upon the geographic
ranges of species previously known only
from elsewhere. The field notes of the
collectors, Cherrie and Miller, are per-
haps almost as valuable an asset to
science as are the specimens to which
they relate. We may therefore well
congratulate Colonel Roosevelt on the
outcome of his expedition from all points
of view, and the American Museum for
its modest share in the undertaking.
99
tunesnyT UBooWY oY} JO UITRaY OTQnd Jo [Tey oy UT IIGrYXo oUDIBAY AreqyTUA oY Wor “ploy oy) Ul AWAY saqyRIg poJTUA OY) JO AOTpP]OS wv JOJ UOT o[dueg
AYVLAIG S.YAIGTOS NVOIYANV SHL
GUARDING THE HEALTH OF ARMIES
FOOD ALLOWED THE SOLDIER IN THE WORLD’S VARIOUS ARMIES —
PROTECTION OF THE SOLDIER FROM DISEASE
By C.-E. A. Winslow
pean war it is at least satisfactory
to realize that the sufferings of the
battle-field are not aggravated by the
concomitant horrors of pestilence, to the
extent which has been the case in earlier
wars.
In many ways the present European
conflict presents sanitary problems of
unusual difficulty. In permanent for-
tresses health conditions may (except
under conditions of prolonged siege) be
guarded against pestilence with com-
parative ease. On the other hand,
field armies operating in the open and
| N the midst of the shock of the Euro-
fighting only occasionally as in earlier
campaigns enjoy many sanitary advan-
tages. Almost incessant daily warfare
between troops established in hastily
constructed trenches where such funda-
mentals of sanitation as good drainage
are almost out of the question, makes
the protection of the health of the sol-
diers a task of stupendous difficulty.
The seed which might bear fruit in
devastating epidemics was not lacking
last year. Just before war was declared
cholera had been prevalent in certain
provinces of southwestern Russia just
in the path of the armies which invaded
Comparative dietary allowance in various armies.
soldier’s dietary of various nations.
of the Museum
‘Energy allowance in calories allowed in the
From the military hygiene exhibit in the hall of public health
67
68 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Austrian Galicia, and this disease did
spread to a considerable extent last fall
among both armies and in the civil
population of the war zone.
No epidemic of large proportions
resulted however, and although we do
not know what the next year may bring
forth, we have good ground to believe
that the old-time wholesale pestilence
will be effectively prevented by the
BEFORE THE DAYS OF SANITATION
CRIMEAN WAR
1853-1856
1,460,500 TROOPS (ALL ARMIES)
118,342
from J
BULLETS AND WOUNDS
Ute, SUISSE
491,455
FROM SICKNESS
application of the art of modern sanita-
tion. In view of the wide public interest
in all that concerns the World war a
special exhibit has been installed in the
hall of public health of the American
Museum of Natural History to show by
what methods the modern army in the
field is protected against the ravages
of disease.
In the Crimean war of 1853, 23 per
IN MODERN TIMES
RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR
1904-1905
1,200,000 TROOPS (JAPANESE ARMY)
58, 887 FROM BULLETS AND WOU INDS
Yj, Yj MN pip ih ty
27, 000 FROM DISEASE
RELATIVE DEADLINESS ,OF BULLETS AND DISEASE
A striking diagram from the military hygiene exhibit in the Museum's hall of public health
GUARDING THE HEALTH OF ARMIES 69
cent of the British soldiers died of
disease, the Franco-Prussian
war of 1870-71, 14 per cent of the
French soldiers perished in the same
way. The German forces in the Franco-
Prussian war, the English army in the
Boer war and the Japanese who fought
Russia in 1906 lost in each case about
24 per cent of their men from disease,
a splendid record compared to that of
earlier wars, but still one that represents
a fearful waste of human life. In the
Boer war the English lost over 14,000
men from disease and less than 8,000
from wounds.
and in
In our own Spanish-
American campaign, typhoid fever alone
cost more than fourteen lives for every
thousand soldiers, and bullets only two
for every thousand.
The chief diseases of the camp are
those which, like typhoid fever, are
caused by sewage pollution of water and
food supplies. In the Spanish war the
typhoid fever, which affected one out of
every five of our volunteer soldiers, was
4
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é
|
mainly due to careless exposure of
excreta and the spread of the germs to
food by flies. In a modern military
camp the excreta are received in a
trench away from the water supply,
the kitchen and food stores, and are
immediately covered with earth to
prevent access of flies.
The water supply of the army is safe-
guarded with the greatest care. When
the troops are in the field all water for
their use is purified either by heat,
filtration or chemical disinfectants, and
the most stringent regulations forbid
drinking from roadside wells and streams.
The Japanese use a field filter in which
the water is strained and at the same
time disinfected by chemicals. In the
French army the water supply of the
troops is sterilized by the use of ultra-
violet light.
The most common procedure for
purifying water in the field is perhaps
sterilization by heat, or distillation.
The Forbes sterilizer (on this principle)
Model of the Forbes water sterilizer used in the United States Army for the purification of the
water supply of troops in the field. From the military hygiene exhibit in the hall of public health
70 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
was officially adopted by the U.S. Army
after competitive tests conducted by a
special board in 1898. In this ingenious
apparatus the water is distilled in a
closed chamber so that it is not deprived
of its natural gases and the outgoing
water warms the incoming water and is
cooled by it (on the regenerative prin-
ciple) so that economy of fuel is ensured.
Such an apparatus, including boiler,
pumps, filter, and
tanks, is mounted on an army wagon and
sterilizer storage
carried everywhere along with the troops.
potatoes, 20 oz.; prunes or preserves,
1.28 oz.; coffee, 1.12 oz., sugar, 3.2 02.;
evaporated milk, 5 oz.; vinegar, .16
gills; salt, .64 0z.; pepper (black), .04
oz.; lard .64 oz.; butter, .50z. Of this
ration, just a portion is carried individu-
ally by the soldier, the rest, such as
butter, lard, pepper and syrup are given
in bulk to the companies and then dis-
tributed to the men at meal time.
When communicable diseases do break
out, the medical officer is provided
by the advances in bacteriology with
Red Cross Field Hospital Model on exhibition in the military hygiene exhibit of the hall
of public health, American Museum of Natural History
The strength and efficiency of the sol-
dier isconserved and hisresistance against
disease is built up by a carefully selected
and scientific dietary designed to furnish
the necessary energy in the most compact
and convenient form. The energy allow-
ance varies in different armies — the Rus-
sian and the American receiving a larger
and the Austrian
than the French, English or German
a smaller allowance
soldier.
The average daily field ration of the
United States Army is made up as
bacon, 12 oz., or fresh meat,
bread, 18 02z.;
follows:
20 oz.; beans, 2.4 oz.;
prompt and effective means of diagnosis
by which the infected individuals may
be promptly picked out and _ isolated
so as not to endanger their fellows.
Against smallpox and typhoid fever the
modern soldier may enjoy practically
complete protection, thanks to smallpox
and typhoid fever vaccination. The
perfection of the vaccine for. typhoid
fever is the most recent and perhaps the
most important of all advances in mili-
tary hygiene, and the terrible typhoid
death rate of the Boer war and the
Spanish war will never again occur where
this preventive has been used.
GUARDING THE HEALTH OF ARMIES 71
The death rate from typhoid fever in
the United States Army per 1000 mean
strength was 3.20 in 1908 with no vac-
cination, 3.58 in 1909, 2.43 in 1910,
85 in 1911 with voluntary vaccination,
and those rates dropped to .31 in 1912
and .03 in 1913 when compulsory vacci-
nation was introduced. The reservists
in certain European armies were not
protected against typhoid fever at the
opening of the European war, but the
difference in the incidence of disease
among them and the vaccinated regu-
lars soon taught the lesson that this
precaution could not be neglected.
In connection with the after effects
of the wounds received in battle the
resources of modern bacteriology have
also been drawn upon extensively. Each
soldier is of course provided with a first
aid kit for the treatment of
wounds; and the splendid organization
of the International Red Cross is_ of
course on hand to provide prompt and
efficient hospital care; but there has
been in the present European war a
terrible loss of life from tetanus, or
The tetanus bacillus is abun-
minor
lockjaw.
dant in the soil of manured land, and
wounds have become infected with this
germ on a far larger scale than was the
case in such wars as that in South Africa
Antitoxin, if
fought over virgin soil.
administered early, will generally pre-
vent fatal results from this disease and
laboratories in the United States are
working night and day to provide this
specific for the European combatants.
Modern sanitation has produced even
more striking effects in military than in
civil life, because its teachings have
there been more consistently applied.
The result has been that many diseases
once very terrible have become of minor
importance in armies; and as the table
shows, measles and mumps are to-day
more common causes of invalidism for
the United States soldier than either ty-
phoid fever, tuberculosis or diphtheria.
RELATIVE ImpoRTANCE OF CAUSES OF SICK-
NESS IN THE UNITED STaTES ARMY [IN
RATES PER 1000 MEAN STRANGTH]
1904-1906 1907-1909 | 1910-1912
Venereal 193. 196. 166.
Malaria 85.3 493 | “31.4
Diarrhea 80.0 45.4 33.0
Bronchitis 50.7 38.5 a2
Influenza 29.6 Beco.) | PRO
Alcoholism Pall 29.3 | 22.9
Mumps 19.3 Geb a ee
Dysentery 17.9 9/3 4! 4.5
Rheumatism 17.5 1473) Ve eLOZO
Dengue 14.8 19.9 ees
Measles Sl 11.4 9.9
Typhoid 4.8 3.9 ies
Tuberculosis 4.7 4.5 Bolt
Diphtheria 4 6 8
Models from the Museum’s hall of public health showing the relative effects of bullets [above] and
typhoid [below]: one wounded and none dead of a company of soldiers in 1908; thirteen sick and one
dead, victims of typhoid, from a company in 1898
SL
SOVL HVIN SNIVId 3DVS JHL WOH SNIVLNNOW OLSIHYS 30 AYONVS
wapurdg fq o,0Yd
HOME SONGS OF THE TEWA INDIANS
By Herbert J. Spinden
HE songs of the Tewa Indians
ap may be divided into two broad
groups, the first religious, the
second familiar. The songs that are
primarily religious are the ones used in
the great ceremonies and dances and
those that refer to warfare and the chase.
All songs which are supposed to be en-
dowed with magical power are called
“Pina” or “Magic Songs.” Such
songs in the ceremonies are supposed to
induce the gods to bring rain and fruits
or whatever else is required. War songs
bring confusion to the enemy. Hunting
songs, sung either by the hunter him-
self or by a female relative who remains
at home, are supposed by merely men-
tioning the lion and the bear to transfer
the hunting abilities of these animals to
the hunter, while naming the deer is suffi-
cient to deliver game into the hands of
the hunter. The songs that occur in the
myths nearly always have a deep reli-
gious significance. There are also witch
songs which have power to do evil unless
they are warded off.
Familiar songs include lullabys, avo-
cation songs, love songs and homesick
songs — songs which are intimately con-
nected with life and which reflect the
everyday philosophy of the people. I
will not discuss the question of their
music, largely because this phase of
Pueblo life has already been treated by
persons much more competent to handle
it than I. What I wish particularly to
call attention to is the word content, the
sentiment and the poetic construction of
the songs.
Here are two songs in the original text
and in translation. The first is a little
song which might be called the “Home
Sweet Home” of the Tewa:
Navi Awi niwi, Aawi naiwa
Navi dwi nawa ndi o” sha
O’i® pi? ndo mu’iri ké" na nandi
Na re sité 4 hi yo he’e wa
A hi yo he’e wi, 4 hi yo he’e wa
Navi Awi niwa ndi o” sha.
My home over there, my home over there,
My home over there, now:I remember it!
And when I see that mountain far away
Why, then I weep. Alas! what can I do?
What canI do? Alas! what can I do?
My home over there, now I remember it.
73
74 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Whether it is the result of accident or
intent, this appealing lyric has an almost
perfect poetical construction. The re-
peated phrases which are used so skill-
fully here, are found in almost all ex-
amples of Pueblo songs. The sentiment
is simple, direct and fundamentally
human; yet as we all know, such simple
emotions are often hardest to express.
In translating this song and the others
that follow, I have taken no liberties with
the text.
not unlike English in the general order
Tewa sentence construction is
of words and in no case have I found it
necessary to shift the order of a phrase.
The ordinary prose seems to have many
more connectives than does the poetry,
which is characterized by condensation
and by more or less conventionalized
phrasing. Aside from following the text
accurately in the matter of the meanings
of words, I have endeavored to give some-
thing of the atmosphere of the language
which is peculiarly rich in exclamations.
Words with such emotional connotation
as “How I wish it were otherwise!” or
s!” occur frequently.
“What can I do, alas!
The second song is supposed to have
been originally sung by a boy from
Tesuque Pueblo, at the trysting place to
which the girl no longer came.
Su k’wa k’e we na povi tsha nde
I" povi i" povi ndo mu iri
Ka"! na na ndi na re siti
I" povi i" povi ndo mu iri
Ts’e oki t’agi na povi tsha
At Su k’wa k’e there used to bloom a flower —
That flower, that flower, whene’er I see it now
Alas, so far away, why then I weep;
That flower, that flower, whene’er I see it now,
For yellow, fresh and full-blown once it
bloomed.
This little song is interesting as a sus-
tained metaphor. It may be noted in
passing that Tewa children are usually
given a name in accordance with the
time of the year they are born. Flower
hames are very frequently given to girls
so the age-worn comparison of the girl
and the flower fits in nicely with local
usage.
Certain phrases that recur in these two
examples indicate that poetical forms
are pretty well set. Like all home-loving
people there is no phrase quite so sad as
ka nyt na na ndi— “far, far away.”
Even the men are not too brave to have
recourse to tears when they think of the
village in the green valley that holds
their loved ones.
Among the most charming of all songs
are lullabys. The Tewa mother singing
her little baby to sleep sometimes takes
advantage of what we call sympathetic
magic, to achieve her purpose. The
song is addressed not to the child but a
bird called “Puye.” This bird is very
sleepy by nature and of course has power
to teach the child to follow its example.
My earlier informants seemed to think
that the little puye birds are bats but an
old woman of Santa Clara declares they
are not bats but instead small drowsy
birds that live in the high mountains.
In former times these birds were tamed
as household pets and their sleep-pro-
ducing faculties were appealed to by the
mothers of erying children.
There are many sleepy little birds,
Sleepy little birds, sleepy little birds,
So go to sleep, my little girl,
My little Frosted-Cockle-Burr,
O, come you sleepy little birds
And slumber on her hollow eyes
That she may sleep the livelong day,
That she may sleep the livelong night.
You may have noticed that the name
of the child is interpolated in the song.
The little girl of my informant was born
in the winter time and was named
Frosted-Cockle-Burr.
When children grow up so they can
talk and run about they soon learn to
fear the Siveyo Sendo or “Giant Canni-
HOME SONGS OF THE TEWA INDIANS 79
bal Old Men.”
personated at Christmas time by men
These bogies are im-
who wear masks and carry whips.
When they enter the pueblo the children
run and hide in the inner rooms but the
masked men go from house to house
asking how the children have behaved
during the year. In case one has been
incorrigible he is severely whipped. As
a rule the punishment is not severe and
a promise to mend one’s ways is some-
times sufficient to ward off the dreaded
whips of wide-leaved yucca. A whole-
some discipline is introduced by these
men; the parents themselves seldom
punish their children. Sometimes a
child may have a dislike for his morning
porridge for instance, and in such a case
the Siveyo Sendo call for a brimming
bowl and stand over the child until every
spoonful is gone.
This song about the Siiveyo Sendo is
sung as a lullaby to children four or five
years of age. As in the preceding ex-
ample the child’s name may be inter-
polated.
Stop crying! Go to sleep, my little boy,
Primrose.
That Saveyo Sendo will take you if you cry.
Over there he will chew you, if you do not
stop crying;
Right now he will chew you, if you do not
stop crying.
That Siveyo Sendo in his bag he will put you.
Stop crying! Go to sleep, my little boy,
Primrose.
Over there he will take you, then I will be
crying!
Very thick now are the leaves of the cotton-
wood;
Very thick now are the leaves of the willow.
There he will take you in under the willow.
That Siveyo Sendo, his teeth we all fear.
Over there now, if you do not stop crying,
Over there now, on the crest of the mountains,
Those Siveyo walk and they hear every
sound.
And there in the mountains that one he will
take you
Where now they are taking the big boys and
girls.
Other lullabys threaten the child with
being carried off by a coyote and forced
to live on juniper berries. They dilate on
the stony paths for bare feet, the thorns
that tear the little garments, the heat of
day and the cold of night, and the mourn-
ing of the playmates and of the parents
for the little boy that will never find his
ray home again.
When I asked whether it was consid-
ered wise to frighten children in this way,
my interpreter, who was the mother of
six children, answered very properly that
no child could be frightened seriously
No doubt
the Tewa child looks upon the Siveyo
when in its mother’s arms.
Sendo with the same delicious trembling
that we ourselves used to feel when
hearing of the dangers of Jack in the
giant’s house.
Among the songs of labor are “ grind-
ing songs”? sung by the women and girls
as they bend over the metate. Then
there are the “shouting songs”’ which the
men sing in the fields and about the vil-
lage. The hunting songs are, as has
been stated, primarily magical and do
not come in discussion. Certain
dances are of a purely social nature and
Most of the
songs used in these dances do not have
words.
for
may be begun at any time.
Concerts by the men are some-
times arranged,
“bees.”
The grinding songs are various. Some
relate to the Corn Girls, the Corn Youths,
and other personages that enliven the
myths, and some comment upon the
usually at grinding
sprouting leaves, the flowering meadows
and other pleasing aspects of nature.
Many are love songs pure and simple,
while others are rather cynical reflec-
tions on the instability of love and the
hardness of life. Some are humorous
songs. It is pretty clear that the Tewa
formerly had definite sequences in girls’
grinding songs that covered all times of
76 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
the day and year. I was not fortunate
enough to get one of these sequences.
The grinding songs are sung to keep
time with the grinding. If there is any
peculiar rhythm in them as a result of
this, it is brought out by an analysis of
the music rather than of the words.
z a
Photo by Walton
As an example of a grinding song, we
have this simple song of good humor:
There by the river runs a little rabbit
Why did you not catch him?
Why did you not kill him?
We feel just like doing that.
Bent over like a little old man
Off he goes with a watermelon;
Bent over like a little old man
Off he goes with a muskmelon!
A love song that has a universal
appeal is the following one which is a
favorite with Tewa girls. It is sung by
two or three who bring their corn to the
same house so they can grind together.
That somebody, my own special one,
Even his shadow and his voice are loved.
His footfall even! But what can I do?
That other one, O how I hate his shadow!
His shirt is fine and white, his hat is gray,
His leggings and his shoes are beaded bright,
His neckkerchief is gay and yellow — but
For all his clothes, his face, his face is black!
Many songs that are associated with
individuals were doubtless extemporized
to fit a special occasion. Many love
songs have a little story connected with
them telling the conditions under which
they were originally sung. As an ex-
ample of a song associated with an
individual we take this bit of
cynical observation which is accredited
to a man named “'Thamu”’ or “ Dawn”
who lived in Santa Clara within the
memory of the oldest people. When he
found several girls grinding corn and
singing about their lovers according to
custom, he would tell them, “This is
the way you should sing about your
may
lovers”’:
Alas! this man of mine!
His words were like truth
When he talked to me.
His words were like truth,
But right away he proved
To be an arrant liar!
After this he would find safety in flight.
One example has already been given
of the homesick songs sung by the young
people who are away from home. Here
is another one relating to the Pueblo
of San Juan:
In San Juan I wonder how my home is,
Surrounded by green cottonwoods my home
is.
Now I remember all and now I sing!
Now I remember how I used to live
And how I used to walk amid my corn
And through my fields. Alas, what can I do!
HOME SONGS OF THE
Sometimes in the songs of this simple
people there is an artfulness that takes
you by surprise. Who can doubt that
the young girl who sang the following
lyric about her lover had a secret thought
to comfort her?
Oh, somewhere yonder in the west
You go away to gather wood.
And now you shout and now you sing.
Oh yes, I remember! Abruptly you left me!
Laughing was I, nevertheless, you left me!
The gentle raillery of these verses
might be contrasted with the unmistak-
able sarcasm of another girl whose
whilom swain returns from a far country
and seeks to reéstablish the old relations.
The song takes the form of a dialogue as
do several others that I obtained.
He speaks:
Oh, Little Blue, at your door I wish to be,
At your door that once was blue and open
wide,
But now isclosed. At your door, I wish to be
Oh, my little breath! Oh, my little heart!
She speaks:
To Comanche girls you paid those words,
those eyes!
Your wish concerns me not and I can’t be
killed
For that! It was under guns that you dared
to pay!
It may be explained to those who do
not catch the figure of speech that the
girl’s name was really Povi tsa wi 1,
that is, Blue Flower, and that the blue
about her door was the flower after
which she was named. The last sen-
tence in the girl’s high-spirited answer,
“Tt was under guns that you dared to
pay’’ means, of course, that he took an
open risk of losing her when he turned
his attention to others.
Songs of disillusion, supposed to be
sung by young persons soon after mar-
riage are a common type. The woman
is usually the complainant. She tells
how a few short weeks before she wore
TEWA INDIANS iy
Photo by Walton
her gayest dress and went along by the
side of her “arm-holding mother’”’ while
the man in brand new clothes followed
by the side of his “arm-holding father.”
But the marriage ceremony over, gay
dresses became a thing of the past.
She continues in this fashion: ‘“ Now in
the morning you wrap yourself in a
78 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
ragged blanket when you go down to
wash your face in the brook and I cover
my head with a tattered shawl when I go
into the village. You promised to go to
Texas and send me checks and money
but you got no farther than Truchas
when you grew homesick and turned
back. But I
should find me crying around the corner
don’t care! If anyone
of the house and should ask me what
the matter is, I would answer: “Oh, it is
nothing, I have only been kicked by ¢
goat.”
This is another song of disillusion, less
circumstantial but no less bitter.
Long ago how nice was everything!
Fat mutton was all I ate,
Coffee and sugar were all I ate,
But now all I eat is the whip!
I have no compunction in saying that
the violence was doubtless of the purely
sort. This final beautiful
and vivid poem I give as the type of
theoretical
true love song of the Tewa:
My little breath, under the willows by the
water side we used to sit
And there the yellow cottonwood bird came
and sang.
That I remember and therefore I weep.
Under the growing corn we used to sit,
And there the little leaf bird came and sang.
That I remember and therefore I weep.
There on the meadow of yellow flowers we
used to walk.
Oh, my little breath! Oh, my little heart!
There on the meadow of blue flowers we used
to walk.
Alas! how long ago that we two walked in
that pleasant way.
Then everything was happy, but, alas! how
long ago.
There on the meadow of crimson flowers we
used to walk.
Oh, my little breath, now I go there alone in
sorrow.
The sacred lake of the Taos Indians +
1 Notre BY THE A UTHOR:
sedentary.
The Indians of New Mexico and Arizona are of two kinds, nomadic and
The latter are called Pueblo Indians after the Spanish name for village.
Art, religion and
everyday life vary little from one of the twenty-five or more villages to another, although four distinct
language stocks are represented. The Tewa speak a dialect of the Tafoan language stock and inhabit
five villages (San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Nambé and Tesuque) along the Rio Grande north
of Santa Fé, and one, Hano, in northern Arizona. Taos is a finely preserved pueblo in northern New
Mexico whose inhabitants speak a different Tafioan dialect. The Hopi villages adjoin Hano and have
been only slightly affected by European contact.
Photo by Karl Moon
TAOS FLUTE BOY
The flute is the Indian instrument of the serenade
Photo by H. J. Spinden
SACRED LAKE IN TAOS MOUNTAINS
A small glacial lake 11,000 feet above the sea, where the Indians hold sacred ceremonies.
All Pueblo Indian tribes have sacred lakes although not many are so beautiful as this
we
mass
Copyright by Frederick I. Monsen
HOPI BABY
Hopi children when very young play about on the flat roofs of the houses and adventurously
climb the ladders leading thereto
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dGvOuw AYTIVA AHL NO OT#d Nd AHL
uapurds “[ H 4Q 0704
NYOoO ONIGNIYD THID IdOH
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Photo by Karl Moon
AT THE BRIDGE — San Juan Pueblo
Photo by Karl Moon
INDIAN COURTSHIP — San Juan Pueblo
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MEMORIES OF PROFESSOR BICKMORE
By L. P. Gratacap
HE death of Professor Albert S.
Bickmore! of the American Mu-
seum seems to mark in the
development of the institution the com-
pletion of a period which encloses the
earliest steps in establishment and a
later era of unrivaled enlargement,
while ushering in the present day of
scientific ambitions and, it might so be
called, of scenic animation. ‘To-day
research embraces continents and their
zoological and ethnological relations,
while the intensive study of the past
contributes new revelations of evolution,
yet with even foot, the skill of installa-
tion, the recording power of the artist,
preparator and naturalist advances, fill-
ing the museum halls with exquisite
pictures of life. The scenario has be-
come the whole wide world, the drama
all that lives and breathes in it, and the
composer he or she who understands
that life and reproduces it with tender-
ness and skill.
On one who has lived through simpler
days, when however ardor was not less
patient, accomplishment not less diffi-
cult, days wherein a certain humility
of hope accompanied effort, the present
produces a really bewildering impression.
It is all so different, so—as Dominie
Sampson might have said—“‘prodigious.”’
The foundation of all this super-
structure of activity and recreation was
1A memorial meeting in honor of Albert
Smith Bickmore was held in the auditorium
of the American Museum of Natural History
on Friday, January 29. Addresses were made
by President Henry Fairfield Osborn, Honorable
Joseph H. Choate, Mr. Cleveland H. Dodge, Dr.
J. H. Finley and Mr. L. P. Gratacap. Quotations
from these addresses will be presented in a later
issue of the JoURNAL.
laid by one whose death the Museum
to-day. Compared with the
ample provisions of room and light — not
inconsiderably associated with bodily
enjoyed now
mourns
comforts and relaxations
in the Museum, that cramped, little, low-
ceilinged attic room in the old Arsenal
where Professor Bickmore worked, over
half a century ago, seems paltry enough.
There was charm in the outlook from
this attic room’s windows over the or-
namented stretches of the park below,
but usually the windows were not quite
clean enough to see through or the
clustering leaves of climbing ivy effaced
them. Crowded along the walls were
the Professor’s books and at a small
desk in the center the Professor sat and
wrote, not bulletins or erudite lucubra-
tions, but appeals, summonses, plans,
reports, his agile pen skimming over
page after page of foolscap as he ex-
horted a trustee, reminded the mayor,
pleaded to a legislator, implored a pos-
sible benefactor, or reproached a mem-
ber for his unpaid dues.
Professor Bickmore at that time exe-
cuted a composite rdle — and those were
not days of the obedient typewriter, the
unfailing telephone, of superintendent,
curator, secretary, trustee, designer, and
although he had assistance, his vibrant
energy vitalized and controlled every-
thing.
This paper written from a past dimly
realized by the younger men of to-day,
can neither consider the historical phases
of the Museum’s inception and growth,
nor can it assume a‘ biographical char-
acter in regard to Professor Bickmore’s
later years and conspicuous success in
79
80 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
educational fields. For the reason of
emphasis, it must be limited to those
initial moments of preparation within
the walls of the Arsenal in Central Park,
and must recall the first personal impres-
sions of a man who imbedded, as it were,
his life and talent in this institution;
it will revive the memory of an intimacy
as it first began, under circumstances
half humorous and half serious, in an
environment that gathers from a remi-
niscent affection for it, a charm both
whimsical and sad.
The Arsenal is externally to-day the
same picturesque structure as it was
then — the confession of what then
implies need not be too curiously asked—
but it has, I understand, undergone
extensive renovation and I trust that
that antique atmosphere which once
assailed the visitor, has been modernized
or banished. In spite of their remote ele-
vation the top rooms of the old Arsenal
were the most cheerful parts of the an-
cient building, almost the most interest-
ing, for there was the library from Dr.
John C. Jay (with which came to the
Museum his celebrated and _ historic
collection of shells); there was Dr.
Draper and his whirling, rotating, auto-
matic meteorological recorders, and there
too, an amazing southern colonel, Dr.
Draper’s assistant, whose smooth loqua-
city always gained a fine dignity by e
slight — O! very slight — admixture of
Vergilian phrases. As for instance, when
he descended those abominably steep
winding stairs that led up to the attic
eyrie, he muttered, “Facilis descensus
Avernt”” and when he painfully, under
excruciating protest of rheumatism,
climbed them he less contentedly ex-
claimed, “ Hie labor, hoc opus est.’’ There
too, after you had crossed a dim room,
piled with boxes and desolate with dust,
you found in a tower apartment, almost
cheerful in its half comfortable seclusion,
the Professor; found him, as I found
him, studying plans, drawing forecasts,
calculating possibilities for the great new
structure that was growing in Manhat-
tan Square at Seventy-seventh Street
and Eighth Avenue, itself a new fact
in the steady civilizing process of the
city northward.
My very first impression of Professor
Bickmore, studying him with a keen
sensitiveness to outward signs, was of
admiration for his verbal facility. Al-
most instantly he plunged headlong into:
that incessant preoccupation of his mind,
the new Museum building, its future, its
uses, bow it should develop, how it
would feed school, college and university,
how it must rise to the occasion of its
new responsibilities illustrating to zodl-
ogist, botanist, geologist and engineer
the vital facts of their prefessions, how
to the plain man it would be a page of
revealing wonders, to the artist a new
incentive for his creative or copying in-
dustry, how it should become focal in
relation to all the scientific activities of
the city, how pride in it would gather to
its support financial adequacy and how
it would expand commensurately with
the new continent’s metropolis, until it
outrivaled — so it seemed to me — the
collective shows of all the world.
Of course it quite took my breath
away, and hopelessly incompetent to
stem the flow of this splendid prophecy
[Is it not to-day being fulfilled?], I sug-
gested that he look at my letters. They
were reassuringly signed by Egleston,
Chandler and Newberry; the Professor
did look at them, read them attentively,
and actually became contemplative and
silent. An instant later, almost eagerly,
he invited me to luncheon. I have
always felt that, coming from the School
of Mines at Columbia, my application
struck him favorably as significant of
the approaching capitulation of that
MEMORIES OF PROFESSOR BICK MORE 81
university to the monopolistic designs
of the Museum.
Well, that first impression grew inordi-
nately. There was an unmistakable
Napoleonic strain in the Professor’s
make-up, and more and more clearly I
saw that his unflagging industry, his
unshakable resolution was supported
by an almost sublime optimism. Per-
haps there he was not altogether Napo-
leonic, for with the great consul the fata-
listic shadow darkened many a sombre
hour. The commentary of the poet on
human hopes, “One moment seen then
gone forever,” had no meaning to Bick-
more, at least in his waking and working
moments. Once seen, his designs were
potentially realized; he never met him-
self coming back. And then he tem-
peramentally possessed wonderful resili-
ency. Of course there ,were reverses,
repulses even, but if a clumsy image
may be permitted, expressed in terms
congenial to modern scientific linguistics,
after every differentiation Professor Bick-
more integrated so rapidly that you
never discovered he had been pulverized.
There were proud moments too in the
old Arsenal. Reception days were really
momentously fashionable. The large
upper hall with mammals and birds and
skeletons, rather crowded, but luminous
and interesting, the subterranean (as
regards light) second floor, with more
skeletons, snakes, alcoholics, building
stones, corals and shells, both over-
flowed with a gallant company of young
and old, somehow evoked by the Pro-
fessor’s own enthusiasm and by the social
prestige of the trustees, amid whom the
Professor with gaiety and confidence
spread his roseate predictions. Music
swelled from one of the tower alcoves,
and an effective corps of reporters, assid-
uously entertained also by the Professor,
duly recorded the wonders of the place
and the splendor of the company. These
receptions were successes and they effi-
ciently helped the lengthening list of
members. They kept the Museum idea
before the great public and Professor
Bickmore intended to make and _ suc-
ceeded in making that great public
understand the meaning of the new
design more and more as the event of its
dedication drew nearer.
The transference of the contents of the
Arsenal to the new building on Manhat-
tan Square was itself accomplished with
amazing rapidity and here again the
unequivocal impetus of the Professor
was manifested. By a Fabian stroke of
prudence he maintained his hold on the
Arsenal by keeping there a much di-
luted mixture —it must be confessed— of
museum properties or exhibits, which
however still further assisted his designs,
as all visitors, always numerous be-
cause of the proximity of the Park me-
nagerie, met a repeated exhortation to
cross the park to see the “real thing.”
Already the Museum had taken on a
quasi-national reference, for had not
President Grant laid its cornerstone; and
now President Hays, himself a storm
center of political dispute, was to open
its halls with the added intellectual deco-
rations of President Elliot and Professor
Marsh as speakers and promoters! The
glory of that occasion need not divert
these lines from their simple purpose,
but I do recall its immense excitement
wherein by an odd trick of association,
the clearest visual memory is that of the
President’s wife, a lady whose tact and
charm had already captivated the nation,
and that of Professor Marsh, vexed over
the absence of a looking-glass for the
regulation of his not over-abundant
hair.
In regard to the friends who have
departed this life, it is all too easy to suc-
cumb to the temptation of adulation,
but, so far as the American Museum of
82 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Natural History is to-day a most im-
pressive fact, the history of its origin,
of its development, of the growth of its
later vital educational influence, is indis-
solubly part of the life of Professor Albert
S. Bickmore. Inseparable factors in the
institution’s astonishing success were
his enduring hopefulness, the prescience
that foresaw the boundless opportuni-
ties for the Museum’s growth in this city
of equally boundless prospects, the in-
cessant watchfulness that nursed its
first years into the self-sufficiency, at
least of adolescence, his industry, his
power of audacious importunity, the
manipulative skill of the politician and
the skillful ardor of the eulogist, and
perhaps lastly the magnificence of his
vision of possible ultimate attainments.
Certainly there were other elements,
other minds and personalities, other
influences even, but— when there is
fame enough for all —let no invidious
suspicion be permitted to lessen by the
smallest scruple the full measure of
Professor Bickmore’s merit.
Finally, Professor Bickmore from the
beginning I think, fully appreciated the
scientific role the Museum would assume.
It was by his strenuous exertions that
the great Hall collection of fossils was
purchased which gave the Museum a
unique distinction in invertebrate palee-
ontology. Very shortly after the occu-
pation of the new building, he secured the
location in it of a section for the United
States Geological Survey, represented by
Arnold Hague, Charles D. Walcott,
Joseph P. Iddings and the mining geol-
ogist, T. B. Brooks. The Zirkel collec-
tion of rocks from the 40th parallel
survey was then deposited in the Mu-
seum, probably the first extensive petro-
grapbic assemblage of slides and_ field
specimens made in this country. These
were subsequently at the Museum,
studied by Mr. E. Wadsworth, and gave
rise to a very pretty altercation, as many
lithologists may recall. Professor Bick-
more, I know, entertained, with Clar-
ence King, the idea of building electrical
furnaces in the basement of the new
building, which might have anticipated
some of the startling successes in modern
electrolytic chemical processes. He con-
ferred with Asa Gray on the project of re-
moving to the Museum the Torrey Her-
barium; I was present when he suggested
to Professor Chamberlain that the Geo-
logical Society of America make its
headquarters at the American Museum,
and again and again he spoke to me exult-
ingly of a project to transform the first
floor of the new building into an immense
aquarium. Many of these plans were
indeed premature and overstated, but
they evinced the fertility of Professor
Bickmore’s mind, and _ illustrated his
resourceful propaganda in all directions
in the interests of the Museum.
MUSEUM NOTES
Since the last issue of the JouRNAL the
following persons have become members of
the Museum:
Life Members, Messrs.
Kerr, Jk., SAMUEL KIssaAM
SEWELL Tappan TYNG;
Annual Members, Mrs. ALFRED NoROTON
Puinurs, Mrs. JuLiA SELIGMAN, Mrs.
Auics E. SHOENBERGER, Mrs. Fircu W.
Smita, Mrs. Jenny K. Starrorp, Mrs.
Davin McNeety Staurrer, Mrs. 8. M.
Srroocx, Mrs. Gustavus A. WALKER, Mrs.
Istpor WorMsER, the Misszs E. J. BARNARD,
Louise G..CRABBE, CHRISTOBELLE CRAIN,
Eva Hawkes, Emma FELLOWES TAYLor and
Evetyn M. Tuomson, Dr. JoHn B. Knapp,
and Messrs. Orro T. BANNARD, ARTHUR
CLEVELAND Bent, JoHN W. A. Davis,
TuHroporE G. Ecer, LEopotp F. GOELLER,
Grorcre A. HoupeEN, Epwarp M. Houses,
Fay Incauus, Witt1AM MICHAELIS, FREDER-
ick H. SanBporn, Donaup Scott, ABRAHAM
Suman, WILLIAM SKINNER, RocueEsTeR B.
SLAUGHTER, FrREDERIC E. SONDERN, ARTHUR
P. Srureces, Howarp Tayntor, MyYLes
WatsH, Eucens W. WatkKINs, and T. W.
WILLIAMS.
LEWIS SAYRE
KKeRR and
Mr. H. E. AntrHony, accompanied by Mr.
David 8. Ball as assistant, left New York
January 29 to join Mr. W. B. Richardson
in southern Panama for a four month’s
collecting trip. There is little known z06-
logically of the high mountainous region
between Colombia and Panama, and the
results of the expedition must prove of un-
usual interest in showing a possible connect-
ing link between the extinct fauna of North
and South America. The party hopes to
secure a representative collection of the birds
and mammals of the region, which will serve
to connect the Museum’s recent work in
Colombia with the earlier work done in
Central America. The expedition hopes also
to round out the Museum’s accessions of
mammals and birds so that they include
a practically continuous collection from
Mexico down into Peru.
Tue Jesup Lectures will be given in the
auditorium of the Museum on Friday even-
ings during February and March, from Feb-
ruary 5 to March 25 inclusive. In these
lectures, Charles P. Berkey, associate pro-
fessor of geology in Columbia University,
will speak before the friends of the University
and of the American Museum of Natural
History on the ‘Origin and Meaning of Some
Fundamental Earth Structures.”” The sub-
jects of the individual lectures follow one
another as follows: February 5, ‘‘Concerning
the Origin and Nature of the Earth’; Feb-
ruary 12, ‘Earth Movements”; February
19, “The Place and Work of Volecanism”’;
February 26, ‘‘Metamorphism”’; March 5,
‘Primary and Secondary Structures”; March
12, ‘“‘Petrographic Cycles”; March 19,
“Application to Local Studies’; March 26,
“Relation of Structural Geology to Practical
Undertakings.”
Tue American Ethnological Society in
conjunction with the Section of Anthropology
and Psychology of the New York Academy of
Sciences met on January 25, at the American
Museum of Natural History. Rev. John
W. Chapman presented a paper, ‘The
Medicine-Men of Anvik, Alaska,’’ and an
informal discussion followed. Some of the
questions asked were referred to Mr. Thomas
Reid of Anvik, Alaska, an educated half-breed
who was visiting the Museum at the time
to follow out certain studies in the anthropo-
logical department.
Apropos of the visit of Sir Douglas Mawson
to the Museum, it may be noted that the map
of the South Polar regions [at the foot of the
stairway on the first floor] has been revised
and brought down to date, so that it includes
the discoveries of Sir Douglas and other recent
Antarctic explorers.
Tue loan collection of Dr. J. Leon Williams
illustrating the skulls of the ‘Men of the Old
Stone Age,” a series of restorations of ancient
types of prehistoric man by Professor J. H.
McGregor, and a selected series of flint imple-
ments and works in ivory illustrating the art
of the Old Stone Age, have been sent to the
Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco.
Professor McGregor’s series of restorations
includes skulls and busts of the following
subjects: Pithecanthropus erectus, the Nean-
derthal race and the Piltdown man, besides
reconstructed brain casts of these stages.
83
84 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Tue evolution of the vertebrates is set
forth in a general way in the exhibition halls
of the Museum, but the subject covers such
an extended field of detail that the casual
visitor would hardly be likely to grasp the
main outlines. Indeed it requires consider-
able technical training to give an accurate
account of the general stages in the evolution
of the skull of vertebrates from the lowest
fishes to man or to follow the transformation
of the teeth and jaws as they are diversely
modified for different functions from primitive
or generalized types. Perhaps it is still a
matter of general interest and it is deemed
still worth while that a few specially equipped
students should work out for themselves and
in detail the steps by which the human back-
bone and limbs have been evolved from lower
types. Such topics are developed in the
Columbia University graduate courses which
are given at this Museum under Dr. W. K.
Gregory. A _ study collection comprising
over one thousand selected specimens of
recent and fossil vertebrates has been brought
together through the codperation of Museum
curators and others. This collection has
proved of constantly increasing value in the
past few years not only to the graduate stu-
dents in the courses mentioned but also to
Museum curators and other investigators.
A class from Hunter’s College also makes
constant use of this collection. The resources
of the Osborn Library and of the Museum
library are likewise used in these courses.
Dr. E. O. Hovey will sail February 5
for the West Indies to continue the studies on
the volcanoes of the Lesser Antilles, which he
began some years ago when the great erup-
tions on the islands of Martinique and St.
Vincent occurred. He will be absent about
three months and will devote his time particu-
larly to the Grande Soufriére of Guadeloupe,
Mount Pelé of Martinique, the Soufriére
of St. Vincent and the boiling lake of Domin-
ica, collecting gases from the fumeroles and
making temperature observations, and taking
note of the changes which have occurred
since his visit in 1908. The expedition is
undertaken through the aid given to the Mu-
seum by the Angelo Heilprin Exploration
Fund established by Mr. and Mrs. Paul J.
Sachs.
An exhibition of photographs of North
American Indians is to be held at the Museum
from February 1 to 27. These photographs
were made by Mr. Edward S. Curtis, under
the patronage of the late J. Pierpont Morgan,
and include some of the largest and most
striking of his recent pictures taken on the
North Pacific Coast. Many of them will
appear in the coming volume (Volume X)
of Mr. Curtis’s life work on the North Ameri-
can Indians.
Tue autochrome plates, as exhibited by
Mr. Frank M. Byerly in the Museum audi-
torium, January 7, proved to be a decided
evidence of the success of obtaining nature’s
colorings by automatically absorbing the
color directly from the object or the land-
scape. The exhibition was particularly in-
teresting to practical workers in photography
as showing the progress that has been made
in the rapidity of autochrome plates and in
their adaptability to use by non-professionals.
Two of the most pleasing pictures were com-
panion pieces, the first showing the clouds
of a gathering storm, the second the rainbow
stretching over the valley after the cloud-
burst. A series of flower pictures illustrated
the extreme value of this art in that it loses
no detail of the coloring of the original.
THE formal opening at the Metropolitan
Museum of the Riggs Collection of Armor,
installed under the supervision of Bashford
Dean, curator of arms and armor, took place
on the evening of January 25. This collection
forms the most considerable gift that the
Metropolitan Museum has ever received
aside from the famous Rogers bequest.
Combined with the collection of armor al-
ready in the Museum’s possession and supple-
mented by loans from Dr. Dean’s private col-
lection, it makes a very full and instructive
exhibit. Mr. Riggs is one of few collectors
who wish their collections arranged chrono-
logically as well as for artistic effect. It thus
happens that from the present installation
the student can get an excellent idea of the
history of the development of armor and of its
decadence and disappearance as gunpowder
came in and firearms improved.
Two reels of motion picture films showing
Blackfoot Indian life were exhibited to the
Museum staff January 22, by Mr. E. W.
Deming, who during the past summer lived
in a lodge near the Blackfoot Indian camps
in”Glacier National Park. The pictures in-
clude"various” tribal dances’ and’ the ceremo-
nies with which these dances" are connected
MUSEUM NOTES 85
and are perhaps unusual in being authentic
unposed records. Mr. Deming returns to
Glacier Park in the summer of 1915 and hopes
to continue this picture record of Blackfoot
ceremonies and also to obtain phonograph
records of Blackfoot songs.
THERE were shown in the auditorium of the
Museum on December 31, motion picture
films telling the story of the rescue of the
Stefansson survivors from Wrangell Island.
In June, 1914, news of the sinking of the
Stefansson exploration ship “ Karluk” the
previous January, and the marooning of the
survivors on Wrangell Island, had been
brought to civilization by Captain Robert E.
Bartlett, across the ice from Wrangell to
Siberia. The rescue of the survivors from
Wrangell was made on September 7 by Mr.
Burt M. McConnell (who but recently had
been of the supporting party with Stefansson
on his ice trip north into Beaufort Sea) in
the “King and Winge,’’— although he would
give all credit for the rescue to Olaf Swenson,
commander of the “King and Winge,” and
to Captain Jochimsen, ice pilot. The pic-
tures showed the “King and Winge”’ buck-
ing the ice on its way to the island and
the taking off of the twelve people from the
flat ice-covered shores leaving only the frail
tent, the flag at half-mast and the cross
above the graves of the three dead, to mark
what had been a camp for human beings for
eight months. The pictures showed also
Stef4nsson, commander of the expedition,
removing supplies from the ‘‘ Belvedere” and
later starting out on the ice trip from Martin
Point; and included besides remarkable
photographs of bear and walrus hunting
from the decks of the “King and Winge.”’
At the recent session of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science
the following honors were conferred upon
members of the anthropology staff of the
Museum: Dr. Pliny E. Goddard was reélected
president of the American Folk Lore Society
and was elected editor of the American
Anthropologist, the foremost anthropological
publication of America; Dr. Robert H. Lowie,
who performed the duties of acting secretary
in the absence of Professor George Grant
MacCurdy, was reélected associate editor
of the American Anthropologist, and Mr.
Alanson Skinner was elected assistant secre-
tary of the American Folk Lore Society.
THE lectures for the blind classes in the
public schools of New York City, given under
the direction of the department of public
education of the American Museum of Natu-
ral History, began November 12 and will con-
tinue until June 15. Two schools from
Brooklyn, one from the Bronx, and eight
from Manhattan are regular visitors, each
class receiving individual attention, and,
during the year, having from four to seven
meetings at the Museum. The schedule for
1914-1915 will include simple illustrated talks
on ‘Fur Babies and Their Ways,” “Animal
Life at the Seashore,” ‘‘ Bird Neighbors and
Their Homes,” “ Flowers of the Springtime,”’
“The Story of the Trees,’ ‘‘ How the Trees
Protect Themselves in Winter,” ‘‘ Hiawatha’s
People,’ “Inside the Indian’s Wigwam,”
“Our Little Eskimo Cousin,” “ The Story of
Cotton, Silk, and Wool,” “A Journey from
Pole to Pole,” and “The Story of Animals
and Vegetation of Different Climates.”
A new work entitled The Indians of
Greater New York by Mr. Alanson Skinner
has been published by the Torch Press.
This exhaustive study has been written to
meet the constant demands of those inter-
ested in the history of our local Indians.
Mr. Skinner has had opportunity to examine
-many of the original sources of information
which were rare and difficult to procure, and
has not hesitated to quote freely their
quaint phraseology. The book is written in
popular style and deals with the history,
archeology and ethnology of the Manhattan
Indians and their neighbors.
THE department of geology has been fortu-
nate in securing for the meteorite collection
fourteen falls and finds which are entirely
new to the Museum’s series. The most inter-
esting of these is an eight hundred and eleven
gram slice of the Big Skookum siderite.
This meteorite was found at a depth of sixty
feet from the surface in the glacial gravels
near the Yukon River, Alaska, and is there-
fore supposed to be of glacial age.
Tue exhibits in the Peruvian hall have
been recased to make room for the collection
of Nasca pottery purchased through the
generosity of Mr. A. D. Juilliard, a trustee
of the Museum. This collection has been
installed in two large wall cases at the west
end of the hall.
86 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
RecENT additions to the hall of fossil
mammals include a skeleton and a series of
skulls of the clawed ungulate Moropus.
These are part of the series of skeletons ob-
tained by recent Museum expeditions to the
great fossil quarry at Agate, Nebraska.
Skeletons of the sabre-tooth tiger and the great
extinct wolf from the asphalt deposit near
Los Angeles, as also skulls of the fossil horse
and the great American lion from the same
locality are likewise placed temporarily on
exhibition, although not yet mounted.
Attention may also be called to the fine series
of skulls in the Oreodont alcove on the north
side of the hall.
Tue following papers were presented before
the recent session at Philadelphia of the
American Association for the Advancement
of Science by members of the staff of the
American Museum of Natural History.
Geological Society of America
CuestTerR A. ReeEps, ‘Geologic Deposits
in Relation to Pleistocene Man,’ and
“Graphic Projection of Pleistocene Climatic
Oscillations.”
Gerorce F. Kunz, “John Boyd Thacher
Park — The Helderberg Escarpment as a
Geological Park.”
Paleontological Society of America
Henry F. Ossorn, “ Migration and Suc-
cession of Human Types of the Old Stone
Age of Europe.” Presidential address before
the Palzontological Society, ‘‘The Addition
and Evolution of ‘Characters’ in Palzeonto-
logic Phyla.”’
CarLos DE LA Torre and W. D. Mat-
THEW, ‘‘ Megalocnus and other Cuban Ground
Sloths.”’
W. D. MatrroEew
Hyopsodus.”’
Barnum Brown,
second contribution.”
WALTER GRANGER, ‘‘New Evidences on
the Affinities of the Multituberculata.”’
WiuuiamM K. Gregory, ‘American Eocene
Primates”; and “‘On the Relationships of
Anaptomorphus, Necrolemur and other ex-
tinet Lemuroids.”’
W. D. Marruew, “Reconstruction of the
Skeleton of Brachiosaurus.”’
L. Hussaxor and W. L. Bryant, “ The
Fish Fauna of the 'Conodent Bed (Basal
Genesee) at Eighteen Mile Creek, near Buffalo,
New, York.”
“On the Affinities of
“The Ankylosauride;
The American Society of Naturalists
Henry F. Osporn, ‘‘The Museum in the
Public Service.”
The American Folk-Lore Society
Purny E. Gopparp, Presidential address,
“The Relation of Folk Loreto Anthropology.”
American Anthropological Society
HERBERT J. SPINDEN, ‘‘ Nahua Influence in
Salvador and Costa Rica.”
Cuark Wissuer, ‘The Diffusion of Mod-
ern Ceremonies in the Plains Area,’ and
“Types of Clothing and their Distribution
in the Plains Area.”
Nets C. Netson, “‘ Chronological Data on
the Rio Grande Pueblos.”
ALANSON SKINNER, “‘Ethnology of the
Eastern Dakota.”
Rosert H. Lowi, ‘‘Exogamy and the
Classificatory System of Relationship.”
Social and Economic Science
C.-E. A. Winstow, ‘‘Community Defense
of National Vitality.”
Physiology and Experimental Medicine
C.-E. A. Winstow, “Standards of Ventila-
tion — Hygienic and Msthetic.”
The Society of American Bacteriologists
IsraABL J. Kuicumr, ‘A Study of the Cor-
relation of the Agglutination and Fermenta-
tion Reactions among the Streptococci.”
TurouGH the generosity of Mr. Ogden
Mills, the Museum has added to its collec-
tions a beautiful specimen of bandolier or
beaded bag, secured in Fort Leavensworth,
Kansas, in 1854 from the Delaware Indians.
Dr. Frank E. Lurz, of the Museum’s de-
partment of invertebrate zodlogy, has been
appointed a member of the board of editors
of the New York State List of Insects. Mr.
Charles W. Leng, honorary curator of Coleop-
tera is also a member.
TueRE have been so many calls for the
moths mentioned in Gene Stratton Porter’s
books, Girl of the Limberlost and Moths of the
Limberlost that a special exhibit of these
species has been installed in the gallery case,
east wing, third floor.
AMONG recent important accessions to the
department of geology mention may be
made of the Ysleta siderite, weighing 310
pounds, from Ysleta, Texas, and the Culbert-
son aérolite, weighing 13 pounds, from
MUSEUM NOTES 87
Culbertson, Nebraska, the gift of Mr. Arthur
Curtiss James. Neither of these meteorites
has yet been described. Hight kilograms of
additional material from the Holbrook stone
shower of July, 1913, have been obtained
for use with what the Museum already
possesses, to arrange a special case in the
hall of geology to represent the mode of
occurrence of such a meteoritic fall. There
have been secured also a slice of the Mt.
Edith siderite showing particularly excellent
Widmanstitten lines, and representatives
of the Rio Arriba, Wairarapa, Elm Creek,
Aumiéres and St. Marks falls. An interest-
ing slab and its counterpart of Triassic
limestone showing footprints and_ ripple
marks have been obtained from a quarry
near West Orange, New Jersey; also a slab
of orbicular granite from Vermont; a series
of salt and other minerals from Great Salt
Lake, Utah; and a specimen of native iron
in basalt from Bihl, Germany. The Albert
Manufacturing Company has presented to
the department an interesting series of
specimens illustrating the occurrence of
gypsum at its famous quarries near Hills-
borough, New Brunswick.
On January 26, Mr. Roy W. Miner of the
department of invertebrate zodlogy lectured
before the Linnean Society on “The Fauna
of Our Tide Pools.’”’ Mr. Miner described
with the aid of colored lantern slides the
environmental conditions determining the
animal life of the tidal zone of our northern
rocky coast from Nahant to New Brunswick.
The tide pools of Nahant, Massachusetts,
with their wonderful flora and fauna were
then depicted. This is the locality from
which Mr. Miner has drawn the theme for
the new tide-pool group which is under course
of construction for the Darwin hall. Over-
arched by a natural bridge of rock below the
high-tide mark at the bottom of a sixty-foot
cliff, this tide pool with its gorgeous display
of animal and plant life presents all the as-
pects of a veritable fairy cavern. It is
expected that the group will be finished within
the current year and will form the most
striking in the series of window exhibits in
the Darwin hall illustrating the natural his-
tory of the invertebrates of the North Atlan-
tic coast.
AN introductory exhibition of drawings in
color of ‘Our Common Home Birds” by
Mr. H. C. Denslow was held at the Museum
in the west assembly hall from January 15 to
January 29 inclusive.
A GrovuP of the California ground squirrel
has been placed on exhibition in the hall
of public health. The significance of this
exhibit is realized when we know that the flea
carrying the germ of the bubonic plague to
man, is common to this rodent as well as to
the rat — for some years recognized as a car-
rier of the disease. This condition has been
and still is a serious problem, as the trappers
who come in contact with the animal become
infected and in turn transmit the disease to
other individuals. The plague has spread
in the West to such an extent through this
agency that the United States government
has found it necessary to conduct a strenuous
campaign to exterminate the ground squirrel.
Up to September, 1913, nearly two thousand
squirrels of this species had been found
infected with the plague bacillus in California
alone.
Tue last shipment of South American birds
and mammals sent north by the Roosevelt
party, has just arrived in New York. About
three hundred and fifty mammalian specimens
and ninety Brazilian birdskins were enclosed.
Among the specimens new to the Museum
collections are three birds, the very small
manikins, two male and one female.
Tue groups in the Darwin hall are being
provided with index labels some of which
have already been installed. Those used in
connection with the window exhibits which
represent an extensive and complicated series
of invertebrates in their natural environment,
are particularly adapted to aid in identifying
the forms shown. The label recently com-
pleted for the Woods Hole group describes
in a series of five panels the principal marine
specimens represented and identifies them
by water-color diagrams placed immediately
below the portions of the exhibit to which
they refer.
AN eight-foot nurse shark (Ginglymostoma
cirratum) was received from the New York
Aquarium several weeks ago, and a plaster
mold of it was made while it was still in good
form. This is now being prepared in the
taxidermist workrooms of the Museum, and
will make a valuable addition to the series
of large fishes mounted along the walls above
the cases in the hall of recent fishes.
88 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
On the afternoons of January 22 and 29,
Mr. Alanson Skinner who is honorary curator
of anthropology of the Staten Island Associa-
tion of Arts and Sciences, delivered two lec-
tures for children, “Life Among the Indians”
and ‘Indian Fairy Tales,” at the Associa-
tion’s Museum at St. George.
TueERE has been placed on exhibition in the
hall of North American mammals a small
group of pikas, a small rodent called by many
names, such as little chief hare, rat hare,
cony, and known also as the “starved rat”
among hunters and miners. The pika be-
longs to the only living genus Ochotona of its
family (Ochotonide). Ochotona alpinus and
Ochotona ogotena are found in EKuropza-
Asiatic altitudes of from 11,000-14,000 feet
among the northern mountains. They are
found along the Volge and Ural rivers,
through the steppes of Orenburg, in the Ural
mountains, and in western Russia including
districts along the Obi River, around Lake
Aral, and through the steppes between the
Obi and Volga rivers. Ochotona sazatilis is
found in North America and it is a group of
this species that the Museum owns. This
particular pika comes from Estes Park,
Colorado, but the American pika is also found
in all the western mountains, is especially
abundant on the Snowy Range in the vicinity
of the Platte River (in southern Wyoming
and northern and central Colorado), and in-
habits regions even as far south as New
Mexico and Arizona.
The pika exhibited is a small gray-brown
rodent resembling a guinea-pig except that
it is never longer than seven inches and has
large, short, rounded ears. It frequents dry
rocky places almost destitute of vegetation,
living upon sappy plants and the twigs of
bushes in summer, and in winter upon the
grass which it has stored between the rocks
of its home during the summer. It is found
almost always at higher altitudes than any
rabbit lives, from the timber line up to the
line of perpetual snow.
Maps have been placed at the entrances
of the North Pacific Coast hall and the East-
ern Woodland hall showing the location of
the important tribes of Indians in North
America north of Mexico. These tribes
have been grouped into nine culture areas as
recently plotted by Dr. Clark Wissler. An
index accompanies the maps, not only for the
purpose of indicating the location of the tribes
on the map but also to serve as a guide to the
collections on exhibition in the four halls de-
voted to North American ethnology.
AN instructive new exhibit to illustrate the
relation of animals to environment has re-
cently been placed in the synoptic hall of
mammals. It consists of a map of the
United States on which are fastened the actual
mounted skins of various species of chip-
munks to call attention to the fact that in
arid regions these chipmunks are small and
pale in color while in forested moist regions
they are large and dark-colored — in accord-
ance with the law formulated by Dr. J. A.
Allen.
A RECENT important acquisition in the
department of geology is a slice of a meteor-
itic iron known as “Sams Valley”. This
meteorite was originally found in 1894 but
was not brought to the attention of the
Museum and scientific world until twenty
years later. The entire mass was a small one,
weighing only about fifteen pounds. The
Museum however has been fortunate in
securing an entire section weighing 1093
grams and measuring about 6% by 4}
inches. The polished and etched surface of
this meteorite is particularly beautiful
through the abundance of the mineral schrei-
bersite which is present in small masses and
broad thin plates, the latter showing on the
etched surface as slender rods and the thin
lamelle of nickel-rich taenite. The latter
are prominent in certain lights as brilliant
lines. This meteorite receives its name from
the post office of Sams Valley near the local-
ity where it was found. Its nearest geo-
graphical neighbors among the siderites are
Willamette two hundred miles to the north
in Oregon, and Oroville two hundred miles to
the south in’ California, both of which are
entirely different from Sams Valley in appear-
ance of the etched surfaces.
The American Museum of Natural History
Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City
Open free to the public on every day in the year.
The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the
Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people. It is dependent
upon private subscriptions and the fees from members for procuring needed additions to the
collections and for carrying on explorations in America and other parts of the world. The
membership fees are,
AmmmnalaWembenssy 2-22 ss, ie soi, sated sees $ 10 Patrons’ techies a ctocdter. 5 ee ae ta ere $1,000
Sustaining Members (annually)........ 25 Associate Benefactors: ..20.2....0.5:5 10,000
Life Members.......... Se ever asieisiors 100 Associate,» Founders::: oy cjc0 6c. + occ eens 25,000
MeMOWSe + oe orc oe ho tee Dieters s Aeavenn e atee 500 Benefactors: 22. powslen Oal eee Cieke 50,000
Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request to members and teachers by the
department of public education. Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone
the department for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied. Lectures to
classes may also be arranged for. In all cases the best results are obtained with small groups
of children.
The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working collection
of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and abroad.
The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays excepted —
from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.
The Technical Publications of the Museum comprise the Memoirs, Bulletin and
Anthropological Papers, the Memoirs and Bulletin edited by J. A. Allen, the Anthropological
Papers by Clark Wissler. These publications cover the field and laboratory researches of
the institution.
The Popular Publications of the Museum comprise the JourNat, edited by Mary
Cynthia Dickerson, the Handbooks, Leaflets and General Guide. The following list gives
some of the popular publications; complete lists, of both technical and popular publications,
may be obtained from the Librarian.
POPULAR PUBLICATIONS
Tue Inprans oF MANHATTAN ISLAND AND VICINITY.
By Alanson Skinner. Jn preparation.
Tue Strokes PAINTINGS REPRESENTING GREENLAND
Eskimo. Price, 5 cents.
Brier History or ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.
10 cents.
Trees AND Forestry. By Mary Cynthia Dickerson,
A new edilion in course of preparation.
Tue Protection oF River AND HARBOR WATERS FROM
Municreat Wastes. By Charles-Edward Amory
Winslow, M.S. Price, 10 cents.
Piant Forms in Wax. By E. C. B. Fassett.
10 cents.
Tue EvoLution oF THE Horse.
Ph.D. Price, 20 cents.
HANDBOOKS
NortH AMERICAN INDIANS OF THE Piartns. By Clark
Wissler, Ph.D. Paper. 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.
INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST. By Pliny Earle Goddard,
Ph.D. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.
ANIMALS OF THE Past. By Frederic A. Lucas, Sc.D.
Paper, 35 cents.
ILLUSTRATED GUIDE LEAFLETS
GENERAL GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS.
issued December, 1914. Price, 25 cents.
Tue Coiiection oF Minerats. By Louis P. Grata-
cap, A.M. Price, 5 cents.
Norta AMERICAN RUMINANTS.
Price, 10 cents.
Tue Ancrent Basket MAKERS OF SOUTHEASTERN
Uran. By George H. Pepper. Price, 10 cents.
Primitive Art. Price, 15 cents.
Tue Birps oF THE Vicinity oF New York Ciry.
Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D. Price, 15 cents.
PeruviaAN Mummies. By Charles W. Mead. Price,
10 cents.
Price,
New edition
Price,
By J. A. Allen, PhD: By W. D. Matthew,
REPRINTS
Tue Grounp SitotH Groupe. By W. D. Matthew,
By Ph.D. Price, 5 cents.
Meruops AND RESULTS IN HERPETOLOGY.
Cynthia Dickerson, B.S. Price, 5 cents.
Tue Wuarr Pitre Grove. By Roy W. Miner, A.B.
By Mary
Tue METEORITES IN THE FOYER OF THE AMERICAN
Museum or Narurat History. By Edmund Otis
Hovey, Ph.D. Price, 10 cents.
Tse Hasirat Groupes or NortH AMERICAN Brrps.
By Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D. Price, 15 cents.
Price, 5 cents.
Tue Sea Worm Grove.
Price, 10 cents.
Tue ANCESTRY OF THE EDENTATES.
thew, Ph.D. Price, 5 cents.
By Roy W. Miner, A.B.
By W. D. Mat-
“‘Moses’’ was captured in the early days on the Paraguay and traveled there-
after with the Roosevelt expedition. He crooned and chuckled whenever taken from
his basket to be fed and petted, and he was often an interested spectator during the
packing of specimens for the Museum
701 OPN EINID)ENNEDYAN (OT
_ STEFANSSON IN THE ARCTIC -
2.) SOHN MUIRDG
The American Museum of Natural History
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
President
Henry FaArrFIELD OSBORN
First Vice-President
CLEVELAND H. DopGE
Treasurer
CHARLES LANIER
Second Vice-President
J. P. Morean
Secretary
ADRIAN ISELIN, JR.
JOHN Purroy Mitcuent, Mayor or THE City or New Yor«K
W ILLIAM A. PRENDERGAST, COMPTROLLER OF THE CiTy or New YORK
CasoT WARD, PRESIDENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
Grorce F. Baker
FREDERICK F. BREWSTER
JoserpH H. CHOATE
R. Fuuiton Currine
Tuomas DeWitt CuyLEeR
JAMES DouGLaAs
Henry C. Frick
Mapison GRANT
Anson W. Harp
ArcHER M. HuntTINGTON
ARTHUR CuRTISS JAMES
WALTER B. JAMES
Seta Low
OagpEN MILts
Percy R. Pyne
Joun B. TREVOR
FeLtix M. WarsurG
GrorRGE W. WICKERSHAM
A. D. JUILLIARD
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS
Director
Freperic A, Lucas
Assistant Treasurer
Tue United States Trust Company
Assistant Secretary
Gerorce H. SHERWOOD
or New YorxkK
SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Freperic A. Lucas, Se.D., Director
Geology and Invertebrate Paleontology
Epmunp Otis Hovey, Ph.D., Curator
Cuester A. Reeps, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Mineralogy
L. P. Gratacap, A.M., Curator
GerorGeE F. Kunz, Ph.D., Honorary Curator Gems
Woods and Forestry
Mary Cyntuia Dickerson, B.S., Curator
Invertebrate Zoidlogy
Henry E. Crampton, Ph.D., Curator
Roy W. Miner, A.B., Asst. Curator
Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
L. P. Gratracap, A.M., Curator Mollusca
A. J. Murcuuer, Assistant
Frank E. Watson, B.S., Assistant
W. M. WuHee ter, Ph.D., Hon. Curator Social
Insects
A. L. TREADWELL, Ph.D., Hon. Curator Annulata
CHARLES W. Lena, B.S., Hon. Curator Coleoptera
Ichthyology and Herpetology
Basurorp Dean, Ph.D., Curator Emeritus
Lovis Hussaxor, Ph.D., Curator Ichthyology
Joun T. Nicuous, A.B., Asst. Curator Recent
Fishes
Mary Cyntuta Dickerson, B.S., Assoc. Curator
Herpetology
Mammalogy and Ornithology
J. A. AuLEeN, Ph.D., Curator
Frank M. Cuapman, Sc.D., Curator Ornithology
Roy C. Anprews, A.M., Asst. Curator Mam-
malogy
W. DeW. Miter, Asst. Curator Ornithology
H. E. Antuony, Asst. Mammalogy
Vertebrate Paleontology
Henry FairFrieLtp Ossorn, LL.D., D.Se., Curator
Emeritus
W. D. Marruew, Ph.D., Curator
WaLtTeR GRANGER, Assoc. Curator [Mammals] .
Barnum Brown, A.B., Assoc. Curator [Reptiles]
Wituiam K. Grecory, Ph.D., Assoc. in Palgweon-
tology
Anthropology
CuarRK WissLeR, Ph.D., Curator
Purny E. Gopparp, Ph.D., Curator Ethnology
Rosert H. Lowisn, Ph.D., Assoc. Curator
HerRBertT J. SpinpDEN, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Nets C. Netson, M.L., Asst. Curator ‘
CuarLes W. Meap, Asst. Curator
ALANSON SKINNER, Asst. Curator
Haruan I. Smitrn, Hon. Curator Archzology
Anatomy and Physiology
Rautew W. Tower, Ph.D., Curator
Public Health
CHARLES-Epwarp A. WinsLow, M.S., Curator
IsRAEL J. Kuiauer, B.S., Assistant
Public Education
Gerorce H. SHerwoop, A.M., Curator
G. Cuype& Fisuer, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Ann E. Tuomas, Ph.B., Assistant
Books and Publications
Rate W. Tower, Ph.D., Curator
Ipa Ricuarpson Hoop, A.B., Asst. Librarian
THe AmericAN Museum JOouRNAL
VoLUME XV MARCH, 1915 NUMBER 3
Cover, Kwakiutl Indian Dance
Copyright photograph by Mr. E. S. Curtis
| PESTS 2 Sua (ota: Tas 2a ig Ogee eae LS eae, AM ee MME Ee tre) 90
Mr. Wit S. Taytor, Mural Artist
Mr. E. W. Demine, Painter of the American Indian
ReEAR-ADMIRAL ROBERT E. PEARY
Str Douciuas Mawson
Pimtenicualinaram ances: >)... Sd... ook Roca u uw a eee oa eke Rosert H. Lowrie 95
With a four-page insert in sepia of photographs as follows:
Dancing asa Cure TOM GHeEnSiGks.. i, a. sree cone eves ainsi avehev elie nia Wiz S. Taytor
From mural painting in American Museum
Scene from Buffalo Dance, San Ildefonso, 1893....... ....-H. W. DEMING
Buffalo Dance of Mandan Indians, 1832
After painting by Bodmer
Dancing to Restore an Eclipsed Moon.................... E. S. Curtis
indian Wances. in. fhe Southwest. ...2. eccn. eee ae HERBERT J. SPINDEN 103
This article and the preceding are illustrated by various remarkable photographs not hereto-
fore published, including several taken by E. W. Deming in South Dakota twenty-six years
ago — when Sitting Bull was alive
‘The: Conversation of John: Mimi. 2.25.0 25. 5 os oe MELVILLE B. ANDERSON 117
‘Whitt sstetamssoi ii the Arctic. . 26.6. 26d cite « oes Burt M. McConnetu 123
Illustrated with map showing extent of unexplored land in North Polar regions and various
points of activity of the Canadian Arctic Expedition
The Geographical Results of the Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition
W. L. G. Jorre 129
With sketch map of the south-central part of the Amazon drainage system showing the newly
discovered Rio Theodoro
Daniel\Giraud Eliot — A- Biographical Sketch.............6.0..26e ene e ness 133
Dr. Elliot’s personal collection of birds in 1869 formed the nucleus of the Museum’s later riches
and his purchases and gifts laid the foundation of the great department of mammals and
birds
ICES LETTIR NCES ey 928 ee ohare ce Bn oe eee rte ee ee 141
Mary Cyntuia Dickerson, Editor
Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History, at the
Cosmos Press, Cambridge, Mass. Terms: one dollar and a half per year, twenty cents per copy.
Entered as second-class matter January 12, 1907, at the Post-Office at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress,
July 16, 1894.
Subscriptions should be addressed to the AMERIcAN MuseuM JourNAL, 77th St. and
Central Park West, New York City.
The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum.
Photo by DeWard, New York
MR. WILL S. TAYLOR, MURAL ARTIST
Mr. Taylor is at present engaged on the great mural canvases in the North Pacific hall of the
American Museum. These decorations are painted to show the industries and ceremonies of the
Indians of the North Pacific Coast.
[See reproduction in sepia of a photograph of one of Mr. Taylor’s recent canvases opposite page 104}
90
Photo by DeWard, New York
MR. E. W DEMING, THE MAN WHO HAS FOR MANY YEARS PAINTED THE
AMERICAN INDIAN WITH GENIUS AND POWER
Mr. Deming has recently been engaged to provide mural decorations for one of the Indian
halls of the American Museum
Photo by Harris and Ewing, Washington
REAR-ADMIRAL ROBERT E. PEARY
On February 20, a lecture on ‘“‘Children of the Ice and Snow’”’ was delivered by Rear-Admiral
Peary before the children of the members of the American Museum. This was the opening lecture of
the Museum’s fifth series of ‘‘Science Stories”’ for children
Photo by Thomson, London
SIR DOUGLAS MAWSON
Sir Douglas Mawson has returned from the Australasian Antarctic expedition, 1911-14, with
a story of much accomplished for science, despite hardship and disaster
His pictures, both still and moving, are some of the most remarkable ever taken in polar regions.
He lectured recently in New York under the auspices of the American Geographical Society and
the American Museum of Natural History
$6
4SvoO JSOMYIION OY WLOAJ SYSBUI JO WOTJDeT[O
aSiv] & SUMO Tnesny oy, “UOl-vos pue 7vo8 ‘avoq oy} ‘ssoay pue SUBARI Se S[TeUTTUR YoNsS JO SUOIZeJUSSeIdar SULMOYS ‘steoURp [BIUOUIeIID SHONIeA JO dnous W
VIGWN100 HSILIYE NI SHSONVG NVIGNI AO SAWNLSOO
THe American Museum Journac
VoLUME XV
MARCH, 1915
NUMBER 3
AMERICAN INDIAN DANCES
THE INDIAN DANCE OFTEN A PRAYER BY THE TRIBE TO THE GODS OF THE
HARVEST, OF WAR OR THE CHASE — USUALLY IN CONTRAST WITH PLEASURE-—
SEEKING, SENSUAL DANCING AS KNOWN AMONG CIVILIZED RACES
By Robert H. Lowie
HE word “dance,” as applied by
a the Indians has a meaning very
different from that which it car-
ries In our own language. When we hear
of dancing, we think, first of all, of music
and steps. These features are of course
not lacking in aboriginal dancing, but
they are completely overshadowed by
other aspects of culture with which they
are associated. To put it briefly, our
dancing appears in the same context with
restaurants, hotels, débutantes, attempts
at a social rapprochement of the sexes.
In Indian society, dancing is largely con-
nected with war and agriculture and the
chase, with processions, magical per-
formances and religious observances, in
short, with the serious affairs of life.
Indian dances as far as the steps are
concerned are often of remarkable sim-
plicity. A widespread “squaw dance”
found among the Shoshone, Crow and
other northwestern tribes, consists sim-
ply in the circle of dancers shuffling the
feet alternately to the left, each man
two
women, with his right arm around his
in the circle standing between
partner’s shoulder or waist, or in some
cases with arms encircling a partner on
each side. With short intermissions
and an occasional introduction of the
war dance for variety’s sake, a squaw
dance of this type is sometimes kept up
all night, to the supreme gratification of
the performers.
The Tobacco Dance of the Crow In-
dians, is, if possible, of even simpler
character. The participants stand up
several in a row, holding sacred objects
in their hands, and alternately bend each
knee and raise or lower each band with-
out at all moving from their position.
The highly popular Grass Dance of the
Plains Indians is of a more strenuous
character. Only men take part, and
they move about briskly, sometimes in
95
96 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
pairs, sometimes separately, vigorously
stamping the ground with their feet, and
frequently mimicking martial exploits.
The orchestral equipment of the
Indians is not very comprehensive. The
flute (or flageolet) is restricted to use in
courting. For dancing, the drum and
the rattle are by far the most important
instruments, although other types were
used over a relatively large area; this
applies, for example, to notched sticks
rasped with other sticks and bird-bone
whistles, usually worn suspended from
the neck. The drum varies consider-
ably in form. On the Northwest Coast
the natives merely beat a plank or box.
The Plains Indians commonly use a skin
stretched over a hoop, held by strings
crossing underneath, but a large double-
headed drum suspended from four sticks
also occurs. Rattles are likewise of
widely varying kind, such as gourds con-
taining small pebbles and ring-shaped or
globular rawhide bags — for which in
the dance of to-day baking powder cans
make favorite substitutes. Sometimes
a certain instrument is considered dis-
tinctive of a particular dance or of a
society performing the dance, and vari-
ous forms of costume are also considered
badges.
the Indian dance a place of significance
Thus dress comes to occupy in
to which there is no correspondence in
the dancesof civilized races. Sometimes,
to be sure, the apparel merely is designed
to give an appearance of picturesqueness,
while in other instances lack of clothing
is sometimes compensated for by face
and body paint or by a profusion of
regalia held in the hand. In a Northern
Blackfoot Grass Dance which I witnessed
in 1907, some performers were naked
save for moccasins and a breechcloth,
but many carried ornamental objects
such as mirrors, swords, and feathered
and hooked staffs. When dances are the
property of special organizations, as is
often the case, there is naturally a tend-
ency to differentiate between these by
some visible token of dress or regalia.
Thus the members of one Arapaho danc-
ing society are marked off from the rest
by wearing a headdress of buffalo skin;
in another society every one wears feath-
ers at the back of the head; a third is
characterized by the carrying of clubs.
Similarly where a single organization has
several officers there is again a natural
attempt to distinguish them through
some external means. Thus a leader in
the dance may carry an otter-wrapped
pole, while the privates of the rank and
file have none.
The Crow Grass Dance might be
chosen as an example of the social type
of Indian dance, the Pawnee Iruska and
the Mandan Buffalo Women’s dances as
representatives of shamanistic or reli-
gious performances, while the Mandan
Okipa illustrates well the great tribal
festival type of dance.
The Crow Grass Dance, or as the
natives call it the “Hot Dance,” is re-
garded as the joint property of four
clubs, to some one of which nearly every
man of the tribe belongs. In a sense
these are mutual benefit organizations,
for whenever a member is confronted
with a difficulty his comrades are ex-
pected to help him in every way. In
each of the districts of the Crow Reserva-
tion, these four societies share with one
another a substantial dance house.
When the time for dancing comes, a
committee of men proceeds from lodge
to lodge, planting a stick in front of each.
This means that each household is to
contribute to a feast to be held by the
clubs after their dance. A crier rides
through camp heralding the perform-
ance and calling on all members to
present themselves at the dance house.
On one occasion I have known four
marshals to be appointed to punish the
AMERICAN INDIAN DANCES o7
laggards; those who had disobeyed the
summons either had to pay a fine or sub-
mit to the indignity of being thrown into
the creek. In the meantime, the people
assemble until the dance house is charged
Then the musi-
to its utmost capacity.
cians, seated in
the
around a
drum, strike up
center
big
a tune, later re-
inforeced by the
voices of some
of the women,
and the mem-
bers of some one
of the four so-
cieties rise to
the
turns
perform
vigorous
and _ bendings
characteristic of
the dance. They
give vent to pen-
etrating cries in
rapid
sion, they bran-
dish weapons at
an = imaginary
foe,
succes-
and thus
proceed around
the lodge until
the ceasing of
music makes
them come toa
sudden stop.
While the ; so kai ie
: we! = — ~ %
dancers’ rest ou ae 5 a, Rape
from their ex-
ertions, some
Crow eager to
enhance his social prestige may decide
to give away a horse. He comes riding
in through the door (he has to bend low
not to bump his head), the horse may
balk or shy at the unexpected spectacle
indoors and the noisy crowd, but the
Two figures from a performance of the Grass Dance
twenty-six years ago when Sitting Bull was still alive
rider proceeds to go around the dance
circle four times, whereupon a herald
announces whom the donor desires to
honor with the gift. It may be a Sioux
visitor or some poor old man or woman
from the clan of the donor’s father. In
the latter
the receiver of
"ase
the horse leads
it away singing
as he leaves the
dance house, a
song in praise of
his benefactor.
Meanwhile the
music recom-
mences and the
members of a
of the
four clubs begin
second
to dance in ac-
companiment.
Any members
who are loth to
rise and perform
this part are
whipped “into
dancing by an
officer armed
with a quirt for
this purpose.
All sorts of
minor incidents
may enliven the
scene. On one
occasion when I
ales ae * was a spectator
ae = while the Hot
Photo by E. W. Dance was be-
Deming
ing performed,
a group of boys
came dashing through camp, painted
with mud and disguised in clowns’ cos-
tumes. They dismounted in front of
the dance house, entered and to the
extreme amusement of the onlookers,
took part in the dance. At another
Photo by E. W.
Grass Dance by Sioux Indians, just previous to the death of Sitting Bull, at Running Antelope’s
camp on Grand River, South Dakota.
Some of the participants in the dance are Sitting Bull, Rain-
in-the-Face, Chief Gaul, Chief Grass, Running Antelope, Red Tomahawk and Charging Thunder
Hot Dance which I witnessed, a man
took off his clothing and gave it away to
a guest. In former days this dance was
made an occasion for men in a spirit of
bravado to cast off their wives, often
merely to show their strength of mind.
The famous warriors of the tribe utilize
the intermissions between dances to re-
cite their great deeds, each exploit being
greeted by a drumbeat, and each recital
entailing on the narrator the obligation
to give away some property.
tain time visitors are
At a cer-
rarned to be off,
for the door of the house is to be shut.
98
Then the feast takes place — originally
of dog meat. Thus ends the Grass or
Hot Dance, a mixture of all sorts of
merriment, self-advertisement, feasting
and dancing.
A very different phase of dancing is
presented by the Pawnee Iruska. The
members of the society practicing this
dance were supposed to be masters of
fire, and their attitude toward it was to
be like a Pawnee’s attitude in facing the
enemy. Spectators were invited to their
gatherings, their songs were chanted and
After
the members began to dance.
Deming
the third set of songs had been sung, the
attendants built a big fire and hung a
kettle of water and dog meat (or buffalo)
The leader advanced to the
over it.
kettle when it was full of boiling soup,
plunged his arm into it and took out a
piece of meat. All the other members
followed suit and unscathed pulled out
meat, for they had secured medicine
power that enabled them to overcome
the force of the fire. An evidently re-
lated ceremony occurs among other
tribes. In the Hot Dance of the Man-
dan and Hidatsa, the performers not
only executed the trick practiced by the
Pawnee, but also danced with bare feet
on glowing embers until they had
stamped out the fire. This was likewise
a usage of the Crazy Dancers of the
Arapaho, who indulged in other queer
antics, such as doing everything in re-
verse fashion and expressing the opposite
of their intended meaning, thus lending
to an otherwise solemn performance an
aspect of buffoonery.
While the activities just described
seem to have had no object beyond
the exhibition of the performer’s super-
natural power, the dance of the Mandan
Buffalo women’s society was intimately
connected with tribal welfare. When-
ever the supply of buffalo had failed and
the village was threatened with famine,
the members of this organization were
99
Photo by Alden Deming
Scene from a social dance largely participated in by women. Photograph taken among the Black-
foot Indians, Montana, summer of 1914. The main properties necessary for the dance are the tall
feather hats. The women in turn dance wearing these hats once around the camp ground until all
have worn them in the dance. Usually a circle of wagons is formed when the dance takes place out
of doors. A feast is always given in connection with the dance. The Museum collections are rich in
dance costumes of the Blackfoot Indians
Photo by P. E. Goddard
Assiniboine Indians in a social dance near Battleford, Saskatchewan, 1912. The structure in
which the dance takes place resembles that used for the Sun Dance, now discouraged if not forbidden
by the Canadian government
100
TOT
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102
called upon to execute their dance in
order to attract the herds. According
to an early observer, they never failed for
they simply never ceased dancing till
buffalo had been sighted. Prince Maxi-
milian of Wied-Neuwied gives a good
first-hand account of a performance
witnessed by him in the early thirties
of the last century. There were two
men acting as musicians, with rattles
and drums, one of them holding a gun.
The leader woman
wrapped in the skin of an albino buffalo
cow. Inher right arm she held a bundle
of twigs, tipped with plumes, with an
was an_ elderly
eagle wing and a drinking-vessel secured
to the grip. There were seventeen
women, all told, who took part. ‘Two of
them wore skunk-skin head bands, the
rest wore headdresses of white buffalo
skin, decorated in front with owl or
raven feathers. All the
vermilion paint on the left cheek and
eye, with two blue spots on the opposite
They formed a circle, the musi-
the women
dancers had
temple.
cians began to sing and
danced, taking up the tune at the same
time. They waddled like ducks from
side to side, raising each foot alternately
higher than the other but never shifting
their position.
The Mandan Okipa represents again
a wholly different type of dance. It
was the great several days’ annual festi-
val that corresponded to the Sun Dance
of neighboring peoples. Ostensibly it
was a commemoration of the subsidence
of the deluge recorded in native mythol-
ogy, and some of the important charac-
ters of the myth were impersonated by
performers. On the other hand, there
was a great deal besides. A marked
dramatic feature was supplied by numer-
ous mummers representing animals and
closely mimicking their peculiarities.
Prominent among these were buffalo
masqueraders who imitated the wallow-
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
ing of the animals represented and whose
actions were expected to entice the game
to the village.
tarily
Many tribesmen volun-
torture: their
breasts were pierced, skewers inserted,
and they were then made to swing sus-
submitted to
pended from a pole as in the more fami-
liar Sun Dance. Altogether the Okipa
was evidently a composite ceremony.
Religious sacrifices and prayers were
mingled with dramatic performances,
magical rites and activities of a purely
social order; and there can be no doubt
that to the average Mandan who had no
special office in the performance, it
served the purpose of a free spectacular
show “‘on the grandest scale within tribal
comprehension.”
The wide scope of activities embraced
by the dances of our native American
population makes perhaps the main point
of interest over and above all special
features. For what must strike every
observer of primitive cultures most for-
cibly is that things which we consider
quite distinct, men of a ruder civiliza-
tion join. Thus the stars are to us a
subject for purely scientific study, but
even our ancestors invested them with all
sorts of mystical properties, and the
North American Indian personifies them
and identifies them with the heroes of his
folk-tales.
mental designs and often do not give
Thus too, we have orna-
themanysymbolic interpretation. Prim-
itive man is indeed less given to symbol-
ism than perhaps has been supposed;
nevertheless his tendency to invest a
geometrical pattern with meaning re-
mains greater than our own. So danc-
ing, which to us is merely a form of
amusement and exercise, becomes in
important
social function, an opportunity for
sleight-of-hand performances, for reli-
gious ritualism, and may become charged
with an atmosphere of supreme holiness.
primitive communities an
From copyright painting by Will S. Taylor
DANCING TO CURE THE SICK
Ceremony of Tlingit Indians, North Pacific Coast. The dance of the shaman or medi-
cine man is accompanied by chanting and the beating of drums. Scene, the interior of a house
illuminated by firelight
WHAVad V SI Vd OTVAANE AHL
PeTMNIAT-poT AA JO VdUTIG SUPITIWIIXP], JO
U01}09ITp 9Y} JOpuN SuryioM ‘19WIpog sap1eyO ‘S1}1v ssIMG we Aq PE-ZERT UL 9pEUl d.19A\ Sorlou asad UYIPUT Jo ssurjured [nJrapuoa AoA
ces VLOMVdG HLYON SNVIGNI NVGONVW A‘
(IMPOT AI[{D BUILDATUY M0]
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oe Fi
tial a al a
Bs I De Ne OOo AR PNT RET
pata ads
ee A
INDIAN DANCES OF THE SOUTHWEST
By Herbert J. Spinden
HE dances of the
Pueblo Indians are never en-
tirely free from a religious idea.
numerous
Some are so deeply religious that they
are jealously guarded from all profane
eyes and are held at night in under-
ground lodges. The War Captain’s
men keep watch
at every road
so that no out-
sider can glimpse
the masked
dancers imper-
sonating gods.
Even in the
underground
lodges the faces
of the uniniti-
ated children are
covered — while
the dance is in
progress so that
they may hear
but not
This
ness 1s most de-
veloped in the
see.
secretive-
villages along
the Rio Grande,
in New Mexico,
where the native
religion has en-
countered — the
opposition of the
Catholic Church
for nearly four
two years ago
Other dances are held in
the plaza of the village, and here visitors
are usually tolerated while on the annual
feast day of each pueblo they are wel-
comed to a more or less innocuous enter-
tainment.
The characteristic
hundred years.
dances of the
Pueblo Indians are strikingly different
from those wild gyrations that we asso-
and warlike
There are, to be sure,
ciate with the nomadic
Plains Indians.
a number of such dances — Enemy
Dances they are called — that have been
taken bodily from this or that wild tribe
and are known
by the tribe’s
name, such as
the Cheyenne
Danee, the
Pawnee Dance,
the Navajo
Dance. These
foreign dances
are mostly con-
cerned with war
and are not re-
garded as having
any important
religious charac-
ter: — Yet its
significant that
title to use them
was obtained by
purchase or
trade before the
dances were in-
cluded in the
village — reper-
tory. Ofcourse
the foreign songs
had to be learned
by rote and a
Photo by E. W. Deming
From a performance of the Buffalo Dance twenty-
special set of
costumes made in keeping with the place
of origin.
In one of the introduced dances that
a woman’s dance
is popular at Taos
and therefore not gymnastic — there is
first, in the center, a chorus of men.
Some of these sit around a large drum
103
Photo by N. Kendall
On the feast day of Santo Domingo (forty miles north of Albuquerque) on August 4 of each year a
memorable dance is celebrated. Besides the ordinary dancers in two divisions are the Chiffoneti or
clowns who play pranks and dance with abandon
a a MP cl ee
Photo by N. Kendall
As far as the steps, songs, regalia and general idea of Pueblo Indian dances are concerned, there
has been little change during the three hundred and fifty years since the Spaniards came
104
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a
INDIAN DANCES OF THE SOUTHWEST
which they beat in unison, while others
kneel and mark time by scraping notched
sticks that rest on a log for ¢
board.
sounding
Around them in a circle, or half-
circle, are dancing girls. These are not
in their everyday Pueblo attire of woven
blanket dress with colored belt and
whitened deerskin boots but in. the
fringed deerskin dress of their Plains-
107
larger circle of men in blankets, each
resting his right arm across the shoulder
of the man in front and all moving in
a direction opposite to that taken by
the girl dancers. These men represent
Pueblo Indian visitors at the camp of the
Plains Indians. The girl dancers and
the inner chorus of men are the hosts
who provide the entertainment. We see
The costumes of the Tablet Dance at San Ildefonso are simple but pleasing.
aprons embroidered with designs representing clouds and rain.
Sprigs of aspen are stuck in the arm bands.
skin.
and are barefooted
bred sisters, with moccasins and leggings.
Searcely lifting their feet from the
ground, as they keep time to the song
and the throbbing rhythm of the drum
and the notched stick instruments, the
girls move slowly round the circle using
their two hands in a graceful warding-off
motion. Outside the circle of girls is a
Photo by H. J. Spinden
The men wear dance
From the back of the belt hangs a fox
The women wear the old-fashioned Pueblo dress
in this the dramatic instinct which in
many Pueblo ceremonies is developed to
a high degree. The famous Snake Dance
of the Hopi is a partial dramatization of
an important myth.
While the steps in many Indian dances
are simple in the extreme, there is a
delicate pulsing rhythm that affects the
108
whole body and makes the dance almost
impossible of imitation for one of an-
other race. Dances in which both men
and women appear are perhaps more
common among Pueblo Indians than
elsewhere in North America. There is
rarely the slightest body contact be-
tween dancers of different sexes and
never an embrace such as characterizes
Pueblo
if we
omit the religious orders of clowns whose
antics are often none too delicate. Both
men and women seem to be imbued with
our own dances of pleasure.
dances are conducted decorously
a sense of religious solemnity and seldom
smile but there is no doubt that the sway
of the dance is no less a source of sensu-
ous delight to them than it is to our-
selves.
Pueblo dances proper
coneerned with rain, fruitful harvests,
and abundant supplies of game. Much
of the prescribed regalia represents
clouds, falling water and
are mostly
blossoming
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
plants. The symbolism is worked out
in feather headdresses, embroidered
aprons, painted wands, etc., and is magi-
eal or character. Wild
animals are supposed to be pleased by
dances in which they are mimicked and
to allow themselves to be killed in re-
turn.
coercive in
All the persons chosen for impor-
tant dances have to undergo four days
of preparation and purification during
which they are isolated from their towns-
folk. The religious heads of the vil-
lage, called “caciques,” are masters of
ceremonies and the War Captain and his
men are watchers, warders and providers.
The public dances in the plaza are
more or less processional but the ad-
vance is very slow and the trail of foot-
prints in the dust shows how the dancers
have inched their way. There are
definite spots for stationary dancing and
here countermarching is used to make
new quadrille-like formations.
A good example of this sort of dance
Photo by E. W. Deming
The Tablet Dance twenty-two years ago at Santo Domingo
INDIAN DANCES OF THE SOUTHWEST
is the so-called Tablita Dance which
takes its name from a painted tablet re-
presenting clouds that is worn on the
heads of the women. It is a spring and
summer dance connected with maize
and is designed to bring rain for the
growing crops. The costume is espe-
cially devised for this occasion and every
109
two divisions according to the social
grouping of the clans, there are Chiffo-
neti or Delight-takers in two orders
and a number of individuals painted to
represent special mythological beings.
The Chiffoneti are clowns whose naked
bodies are painted with broad stripes of
black and white and whose hair is
detail of dress and ornament has a
special import. Of course, variations
are to be noted from one pueblo to
another. On the great feast day of
Santo Domingo in August this dance is
celebrated and several hundred persons
take part in it. Besides the men and
women dancers, who are divided into
Photo by E. W. Deming
The Tablet Dance takes place in the spring and is a prayer for rain
smeared with mud and tied with corn
husk. The ostensible purpose of these
clowns is to make merry and do what
mischief they can but in reality they are
the only persons who can conduct the
gods of rain and fruitfulness into the vil-
lage and they thus occupy an important
esoteric place in Pueblo religious life.
Clowns in the Santo Domingo Tablet Dance.
Photo by E. W.
Deming
It is their duty to rush through the village and with
little whips drive all the workers or dancers to fulfill their respective parts in the ceremony
The Buffalo Dance, the Deer Dance
and the Eagle Dance are examples of
mimic animal dances. Headdress and
body coverings are made when possible
from the skins of the animals in question
or color is used where skins cannot be
worn. The characteristic cries and pos-
tures of the animals are often cleverly
the Buffalo Dance a
animals, including deer,
antelope and elk, are represented in
addition to the Buffalo Men ard the
imitated. In
number of
Photo by E. W. Deming
Chanters in the Tablet Dance, Santo Domingo
110
Buffalo Maid. Ex-
cept in case of the
last-mentioned __ per-
son, all the dancers
wear animal head-
dresses. They are
brought into the vil-
lage at daybreak by
herders dressed in buf-
falo robesand carrying
bows and arrows. A
chorus meets them and
escorts them, between
a double file of ordi-
nary men and women
dancers, to the danc-
ing places. The dance
lasts about twenty
minutes and is re-
peated several times
during the day. At
sunset the dancers re-
tire into the hills and
resume their ordinary
clothing. Inthe Deer
Dance the same mim-
icry is seen and when
the last dance is over,
the deer run away into
the hills at top speed.
The girls try to catch
one of the little deer
and sometimes suc-
ceed.
At the secret dances
held at night in the
underground — lodges
the dancers wear
masks and imperson-
ate the mythological
beings. Most of these
have definite and well-
known characteristics
and are at once rec-
ognized. Although
dances of this sort in
the Rio Grande region
The Eagle Dance is exhausting physically to the dancers, but interest-
ing to the spectators for its dramatic quality. The eagle men are
guided from the underground lodge to the dancing place by a line of
sprinkled corn. They imitate very cleverly the characteristic postures
of a bird
1il
ott
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INDIAN DANCES OF THE SOUTHWEST
cannot be seen by outsiders and must
be studied from information and native
drawings, still similar ones are danced
in the open in the Hopi villages of
Arizona. The dramatic instinct comes
out strongly in some of
these secret dances. This
is particularly true of
the ceremonies preceding
the arrival of the masked
dancers who represent
mythological beings.
These mythological be-
ings are supposed to live
in the under world and
to come up through lakes
and springs when they
visit the upper world.
The Chiffoneti or
clowns are the inter-
mediaries between mor-
tals and these gods.
The caciques deter-
mine when a _ masked
dance is to,be held, and
they select the dancers.
The latter are locked up
for four days and puri-
fied by fasting and ablu-
tion. At the appointed
time all the villagers go
to the underground lodge
and seat themselves in
readiness for the per-
formance. Soon two
clowns appear at the
hatchway in the roof
and come down the lad-
der. They make merry
with the — spectators.
Then one says to the
other, “My brother,
from what lake shall we
get our masked dancers
to-night?” “Oh, I don’t
know. Let’s try Dawn
Cafion Lake. Maybe
Indians, 1893.
113
some Cloud People are stopping there.”
Then one clown takes some ashes from
the fireplace and blows it out in front
of him. “Look brother,” he says, “do
you see any Cloud People?” They
-Photo by BE. W.
One of the side dancers in the Buffalo Dance, San Ildefonso Pueblo
Deming
A buffalo horn on one side and three eagle feathers on
the other decorate the head.
magical devices supposed to aid in the hunting of buffalo
The crosses painted on the body are
ae
Forward movement of side line of dancers in Buffalo Dance, San Ildefonso.
Photo by E. W. Deming, 1893
To the rhythmic beat
of drums the dancers advance slowly, swaying alternately to right and left and shaking their rattles
toward the ground on the one side and then on the other
Photo by E. W. Deming, 1893
114
In the center be-
tween the side lines of
the buffalo dance are
the Indian dancers rep-
resenting animals and
imitating their move-
ments, three buffalo
(two bulls and one fe-
male), two black-tailed
deer and two antelopes.
The Indians represent-
ing buffalo wear the
complete buffalo head
as a headdress. Speci-
mens of these head-
dresses as well as those
worn in the Deer Dance
are on exhibition in the
American Museum
INDIAN_DANCES OF THE SOUTHWEST
peer across the ash cloud and one says,
“Yes, here they come now. They are
walking on the cloud. Now they stop
at Cottonwood Leaf Lake.” Then the
other clown blows ashes and the ques-
Thus the Cloud
People are drawn nearer and nearer
until they enter the village.
tions are repeated.
The clowns
become more and more excited and
finally cry: “Here they are now!”
and the masked dancers stamp on the
roof and throw game, fruit, and cakes
down the hatchway. When the masked
dancers enter, the children are covered
but the older people drink in the divine
presence with the palm of their hands
as one scoops up and drinks water.
These masked dancers may not talk al-
though they make peculiar sounds.
Their wishes are told in pantomime.
The songs used in these ultra-sacred
ceremonies have words and sometimes a
115
sentiment that is beautiful. More com-
monplace dances may be accompanied
by songs without real words and only a
Here
is a song from the Turtle Dance — one
jumble of meaningless syllables.
of the winter dances of sacred type.
It refers to the coming of spring.
Povi ts’e anyu
Povi ts& nyu anyu
Khu" p’i nyu anyu
Khu* tsa nyu anyu
Gi na™ ak’o
Gi na™ ak’o
Nde wa pa he ra™*
Na we ndi powa
Yellow Flower Girl!
Blue Flower Girl!
Mottled Corn Girl!
Blue Corn Girl!
Thus on the plain,
Thus on the plain,
Everything they revive
And hither return!
Photo by H. J. Spinden
The circuit of the Antelope Priests in the great Snake Dance ceremony at Walpi (in the Hopi
country, Arizona).
dramatization of an ancient Indian myth.
This dance is a collaboration of the Antelope and Snake societies and is a partial
Many of the Southwest dances are carried out with great
solemnity, often at night in underground lodges, the masked dancers impersonating gods.
[The March,
1913, JourNat reproduced a long series of photographs of the Snake Dance by the artist, Mr. Howard
McCormick]
JOHN MUIR, AMERICAN NATURALIST, EXPLORER, AUTHOR, 1838-1914
BESIDE ONE OF THE TREES HE LOVED
The mountains and flower-covered foothills of the Sierras, the glaciers of Yosemite, giant sequoias — these were
the comrades of his high spirit. He lived among them for many years — often in loneliness for human comradeship,
studied them with devotion, with the close observation of a scientific mind, and wrote and talked of them with
{ charm and power. He persistently championed their preservation for the people and to his efforts we owe to-day
our sequoia groves, the Yosemite Valley and Yellowstone Park
[Photograph presented by John Muir to Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1911]
116
THE CONVERSATION OF JOHN MUIR
By Melville B. Anderson
Professor of English Literature, Leland Stanford University
OHN MUIR is beyond care for
what we do, yet I am a little dis-
turbed by the feeling that, if he
knew what I am doing now, he would
not spare me a shaft of his irony; per-
haps, with allusion to Burns, his prince
of poets, he would enquire what he had
done that I should be discharging my
musket over his grave! Certainly I
have no claim to be heard upon hin,
just as I had no claim to his friendship,
with which, nevertheless, I was graced
for nearly a quarter of a century. Yet
I like to think of “the way that love
began.”
When John Muir, then a shy youth,
best known at the University of Wiscon-
sin as a mechanical genius, left his Alma
Mater to start upon his great quest, he
carried a letter from Professor Butler to
Miss Catharine Merrill of Indianapolis,
a lady whose memory is ever blessed
among the elder generation there. At
Indianapolis he stopped for awhile to
earn some money by working in a
machine-shop, where, however, he met
with an accident which deprived him of
sight in the right eye and threatened him
with total blindness. During this trying
time Miss Merrill, who was a_ busy
teacher, showed herself a friend in need.
In a memorial notice of her, he says:
“She came to my darkened room an
angel of light, with hope and cheer and
sympathy purely divine.” It was from
the lips of this lady that I first heard of
Muir, and through my friendship with
her and her family that it became natural
and necessary, when coming to Cali-
fornia, that I should know him. Thus
one of the most perfect of women is
beautifully linked in my memory with
Now that
they are both gone, it is pleasant to
think that what I had in him I owed to
one of the noblest of men.
her grace.
Muir had set out for South America,
and the next stage of his trip was a tramp
from Indianapolis to the Gulf. There
he suffered another setback in the shape
of an attack of some malignant fever.
Recovering from this, he changed not
his mind but his goal; the tropics, he
decided, were not for him — he would go
to California. He has often told me of
his landing in San Francisco one April
morning in I know not what year in the
Strolling up Market Street and
peering timidly into the faces of the
sixties.
people hurrying to the business of the
day, he at length singled out a carpenter
carrying a box of tools on his shoulder, as
one who might safely be accosted. The
momentous question was one to which,
for the rest of us, the speaker’s future
life was to be a large answer: “ How can
I get out of town?” — The reply of the
carpenter was: “Well, sir, you just go
back the way you came and take the
Oakland Ferry.’”’ — Oakland was then
but a straggling village, and the way out
was not the problem that it now would
be for a stranger on foot. Instantly
Muir turned his back upon all that San
Francisco might have to show, and found
himself an hour later at home and happy
in the bills above Oakland. Following
the line of the hills and mountains, he
sauntered day after day, botanizing as
he went, as far as Pacheco Pass, whence
he had a Pisgah view of his Land of
Promise, the distant Sierra. Descending
117
118
into the San Joaquin Valley, he found it
everywhere glowing with beautiful flow-
ers. Men with their cattle had not yet
broken into this garden of Nature to
such a degree as to devastate it, and to
push out of existence scores of plant-
genera. He would le down in his track
at night and look up at a luminous and
friendly sky through a canopy of Mari-
posa lilies. Making his way across the
great plain and up along the Merced
River, he found himself after a few days
on the brink of Yosemite. What fol-
lowed is told in My First Summer in
the Sierra. Equally interesting would
have been his account of his first winter
there. Someone employed him to build
a sawmill and to cut lumber, so that
within a few months he had earned, as
he once told me, enough money to last
him for the next fifteen years.
Then began the series of patient hardy
explorations of which his books and arti-
cles are but a fragmentary record. More
than once, during the last year of his life
(which no one thought of as the last!),
I urged him to continue the autobiog-
raphy which he seemed to have dropped
just at the outset of his real career. His
answer was that the writing would re-
quire another lifetime. Possibly he may
have felt that whatever he wrote was in
the best sense autobiographical; it is
indeed peculiarly true of his writings
that they bear the stamp of his character.
Then, too, he detested the drudgery of
composition. Whenever I went to see
him, he was doggedly at work upon some
literary task; the Scot in him kept him
forever at it, although not forbidding
him the luxury of an occasional lament.
I am sure his writings have cost him
more groans by far than all the hard-
ships incident to his explorations.
than a fortnight before the unforeseen
end, going up as usual through the lonely
house without the ceremony of knock-
Less
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
ing, I found him sitting before the fire at
work upon his typewritten manuscript.
Showing me the new bookshelves he had
had made since my previous visit, he
said, upon my congratulating him on the
orderly state of his library, which for
years had been lying in dusty heaps and
tiers along the floor: “I am going to
begin buying books now.” — “ What,”
I could not help saying, “do you expect
to do much reading?” — “O yes”; and
then with a sigh, “If I only had not so
much writing to do!’”? —
He always appeared eager to put
everything aside for the sake of a long
talk. After the marriage of his daugh-
ters he lived alone in the old mansion,
which stands on a mounded knoll rising
from amid the narrow alluvial valley of
Alhambra. He took his meals at the
neighboring house where his elder daugh-
ter with her husband and growing fam-
ily lives, and was otherwise cared for by
a faithful old Chinaman who had been in
This
old gardener was a man of deeds, not
his employ for some thirty years.
words. Orders were received in silence,
and did the master wish to assure him-
self that an order was understood, the
reply would be: “Too muchee talk!” —
In thirty years the taciturn fellow had
pot learned thirty words of English.
For all his inward resources, and not-
withstanding the pleasure he took in the
family of his daughter, perhaps Muir
had moments of loneliness. Whenever
I wrote asking permission to visit him
for a day, he would telepbone or tele-
graph that I should come soon and stay
as long as possible.
Searcely would the guests be seated,
when Muir would begin, as if thinking
aloud, pouring forth a stream of remi-
niscence, description, exposition, all re-
lieved with quiet humor, seasoned with
pungent satire, starred and rainbowed
with poetic fancy. What would one not
THE CONVERSATION OF JOHN MUIR
give for a phonographic record of those
wonderful talks! One recalls them as
one recalls the impressions of travel, or
the pictures in a gallery, or sweet music
which one is impotent to reproduce.
Taking a text from what was uppermost
in his mind, or from a chance question,
or from a leaf or pebble or petrifaction,
he would begin very quietly and with-
out the slightest hesitation, and would
soon lead the spellbound listener into the
inward parts of the subject. Sadly con-
sidering how little I can recall, I respect
more than ever the talent of a Boswell.
Whatever one attempts to reproduce
seems to fade like those pebbles which
Emerson brought home from the brook.
I venture to offer here two imperfect
snatches of his talk, which I owe to a
friend who accompanied me to visit
Muir last August, and who jotted down
a few notes. Muir rarely referred to
current events, but some reference to the
invasion of Belgium brought out the
following deliverance:
It all reminds me of an experience of mine
soon after leaving the University of Wiscon-
sin. I wanted to go to Florida to see the
plants down there; so I set out-afoot toward
the fall of the year. I traveled along the
western foothills of the Appalachian Moun-
tains where the people were none too hospita-
ble. It was just after the War and they were
distrustful of Northerners. When refused
shelter I would creep into the thickest brush
I could find under the large trees. Often
it would rain, and again it would not be safe
to light a fire, so that I got pretty chilly by
morning. Then, when the sun was up, I’d
crawl into an open, sheltered spot and try to
get another nap. But I didn’t generally
sleep long. The people there all keep hogs
and let them run on the mountainsides to feed
on the acorns. In order to keep the herd
together, they throw out a few ears of corn
in the morning about the cabin, at the same
time calling the hogs. I’d hear a shout away
down the valley somewhere, then a crackling
of the brush all round, and those razorbacks
would come charging down the hillside right
through my little camp and right over me, if
119
I didn’t look out — snorting and squealing,
blind and mad to get at that corn.
And that’s the way with us in these days of
our modern civilization and automobiles and
a’ that, rushing pellmell after something and
never getting anywhere. We imagine if we
make a big disturbance we’re ‘‘ progressing’”’!
— Progressing down hill hke the Gadarene
swine! —
Much later on in the same conversa-
tion, he chanced to be speaking with
humorous indignation, but not unkindly,
of certain differences he had had with an
Eastern naturalist, and wound up about
as follows:
....But I got the better of him once. A
number of us, botanists and foresters and
others, were examining the mountain region of
Tennessee and North Carolina and on down
the ridge. The autumn frosts were just be-
ginning, and the mountains and higher hill-
tops were gorgeous. My friend and the rest
were making a little fun of me for my enthusi-
asm. We climbed slope after slope through
the trees till we came out on the bare top of
Grandfather Mountain. There it all lay in
the sun below us, ridge beyond ridge, each
with its typical tree-covering and color, all
blended with the darker shades of the pines
and the green of the deep valleys.— I
could n’t hold in, and began to jump about
and sing and glory in it all. Then I hap-
pened to look round and catch sight of
standing there as cool as a rock, with a half
amused look on his face at me, but never
saying a word.
“Why don’t you let yourself out at a sight
like that?” I said.
“‘T don’t wear my heart upon my sleeve,”
he retorted.
“Who cares where you wear your little
heart, man?” I eried. ‘‘There you stand
in the face of all Heaven come down on earth,
like a critic of the universe, as if to say,
Come, Nature, bring on the best you have:
iim from BOSTON! —
Sallies like these were not infrequent,
but the main current of his talk was
deeper and graver. One hobby, upon
which he would discourse for hours with
poetic eloquence, interspersed with phi-
lippics against those chamber geologists
120
who “never saw a glacier in the life,”
was the glacial origin of the Yosemite
and kindred gorges. On one occasion,
when my companion was a colleague in-
terested in mechanical subjects, the con-
versation turned all upon inventions,
and Muir brought out the remnants of
the celebrated machine for facilitating
early rising, described in his autobio-
graphical volume. I remember that we
had that day propelled our bicycles the
ninety odd miles from Stanford Univer-
sity to the Alhambra Valley, and the
exhausted flesh quenching the spirit,
I was obliged to interrupt our host early
in the wee sma’ hours. I have no doubt
he would have talked all night and would
in the morning have been as fresh as
Socrates after the Symposium. Last
August, I chanced early in the conversa-
tion to ask him why the prairies of the
Middle West were treeless, since it is
proved that trees flourish there. To
answer that question he took an hour or
more, talking freely with great wealth
of detail and illustration, but without
diffuseness. He liked also to give long
accounts of his great journey round the
world, when he visited the Himalaya,
Australia, Africa, Chili, all apparently
with the guiding purpose of studying
certain kinds of trees.
Perhaps the secret of his pleasure in
narrating episodes of his life is to be
found in the illusion of living over again,
feeling the thrill of past emotion, sensing
As he
revisited in the light of vivid memory
beautiful
the flow of spent springs of joy.
landscapes and memorable
places, he carried along with him the
sympathetic listener, who received much
of the delight and profit of travel with-
out expense, without fatigue, and with-
out that sense of wasted time which the
traveler suffers in the dreary intervals of
waiting and transit. What was told was
so interesting in subject and manner that
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
one did not think until afterward of the
wonderful qualities of the teller — his
alertness and flexibility of thought, his
photographic memory, his wit and poetic
imagination, his selfless regard for what-
ever seemed true to him — his scorn, too,
for the man who, having knowledge of
the truth, stoops for a mean end to flatter
the public with the falsehood for which
poor human beings chiefly crave. De-
spite his fullness of talk and the unusual
remoteness of his interests from those
which, unhappily, chiefly claim our solici-
tude, I never found him either tedious or
garrulous. Simple and almost childlike
as he seemed, the hearer felt, upon reflec-
tion, that in this simplicity was the most
cunning refinement of art. I used to
fancy that he used conversation as a
means of shaping his material and trying
out his effects for composition. One
was struck with the masterly way in
which he handled long and complicated
sentences, whose members would fall into
line with the precision of a well-trained
military company after the confusion
of a sudden change of face. Finally,
his vocabulary was choice and arresting;
to slang he never needed to descend to
produce a telling effect; his talk had
none of the cheap devices by which we
Americans are especially prone to seem
witty at no expense to ourselves. He
was indeed saturated with the homely
proverbial wisdom of Scotland and with
the wit and satire of Burns, and loved
to lighten his discourse with them; but
he never stooped to any hackneyed or
vulgar phrase.
In the high Sierra there are trails which
lead along the axis of the range, sweep-
ing in great curves far back toward the
river-heads in order to avoid the deeper
gorges, in places climbing nearly level
with the snow-line up where the hardy
pines crouch on _ all-fours —nay, all-
twenties, all-hundreds — as if to provide
THE CONVERSATION OF JOHN MUIR
shelter for storm-bound man or beast;
again plunging far down through the
121
talk of John Muir, dwelling much upon
the heights, anon descending to pleasant
shadowy forest to embowered stream-
beds where the traveler pauses in the
sheen and fragrance of the azalea, and
where the water ouzel dances to the
fluting and tinkling of the rivulet. Like
such a trail in varying charm was the
homely places, giving glimpses at times
of Nature’s jealously guarded arcana,
freely turning aside on the spur of every
casual fancy, and when apparently most
vagrant, bringing you at last safely into
camp at the goal for which you started.
Courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Company
4
....1 wandered away [after four years’ study at the University of Wisconsin] on a glorious botani-
cal and geological excursion, which has lasted nearly fifty years....always happy and free, poor and
rich, without thought of diploma or of making a name, urged on and on through endless inspiring,
Godful beauty.”’
Fame pushed its way however to John Muir. His books will live for many a generation to read with
delight and with reverence for the man.— And he will be greatly missed in practical work. At the time
of his death he was president of the Society for the Preservation of National Parks and vice-president
of the California Associated Societies for the Conservation of Wild Life, and always his judgment and
personal influence came as authority. [Photograph from The Story of My Boyhood and Youth]
SPOOR
Oe SNS
RIOOes
\
'
‘
a
Map to show the extent of unexplored territory in the north polar region, and the various points
of activity of the Canadian Arctic expedition commanded by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. The unexplored
region is supposed to contain somewhere within it, as proved by a study of the tides, a body of land of
continental proportions or an archipelago of islands, such as seen to the eastward
+3. ‘‘Karluk”’ frozen solidly in the ice pack broke from what had been considered permanent winter
quarters and drifted westward, September 23, 1913, leaving Stefansson and hunting party stranded
on shore ‘
+4. ‘‘Karluk”’ crushed in the ice pack in which it had been carried four months, and sank, January 10,
1914. Twelve survivors rescued from Wrangel Island, September 7, 1914
+ Martin Point. Stefansson and two companions, March 22, 1914, started north over the sea ice for a
thirty-day exploration journey into the unknown region, having heard nothing from the ‘‘ Karluk”’
to that time and having arranged for various activities of the southern party of the expedition
in winter quarters at Collinson Point. Nothing has been heard from this exploration party to
date, one year later in 1915 :
44. One of the small vessels of the expedition probably at this point in winter quarters, 1914-15.
Proceeded under charge of Wilkins in the summer of 1914 to form base of supplies for Stefansson
should he be able to reach Banks Land instead of returning to the north coast of Canada or Alaska
+2. Winter quarters 1914-15 of the southern land party under R. M. Anderson, having proceeded
to this position with two small vessels of the expedition in the summer of 1914 for scientific study
of the Eskimo there, of the copper deposits, etc.
122
WITH STEFANSSON IN THE ARCTIC
A BRIEF HISTORY OF STEFANSSON’S MOVEMENTS FROM SEPTEMBER 20, 1913,
WHEN HE LEFT THE “KARLUK” ON A HUNTING TRIP INLAND, UNTIL APRIL
7, 1914, WHEN HE WAS LAST SEEN ON DRIFTING ICE, OVER 180 FATHOMS
OF SEA AT THE EDGE OF THE CONTINENTAL SHELF IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN
By Burt M. McConnell
Of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1914
HEN early in September, 1913,
the drifting ice-field in which
the “ Karluk”’ was frozen be-
came stationary about eighteen miles
off the mouth of the Colville River in
149° W. longitude and remained in that
position for ten days, Stefansson and
Captain Bartlett concluded that the
ship was in safe winter quarters. Our
four Eskimo, although excellent marks-
men, had been unable to hunt seals suc-
cessfully because the animals were not
at that season covered with a layer of
blubber sufficient to keep them afloat
after being killed, and as fresh meat is
the only known preventive of scurvy in
the Arctic, Stefansson decided to take
ashore a party, consisting of Jenness,
Wilkins and myself, to hunt caribou
forty miles inland on the Colville River.
The “ Karluk,” as is probably known
to most readers of the JOURNAL, was
carried to the westward by a gale a few
days after our departure, and four
months later, on January 10, 1914, was
crushed by the ice at a point about
eighty miles northeast of Wrangel Is-
land which is in 180° W. longitude and
71° N. latitude. She sank the next day,
leaving her company of twenty-five
marooned on the ice. Under the leader-
ship of Captain Bartlett, sixteen mem-
bers of the expedition succeeded in
reaching Wrangel Island on March 12.
Here they maintained themselves in two
camps until September 7, 1914. On this
date they were rescued by Olaf Swenson
in the power schooner “King and
Winge,” word of their plight having
been brought to the outside world by
Captain Bartlett. Eight of the original
company, including two of the world’s
foremost scientists, James Murray,
oceanographer, and Henri Beuchat, an-
thropologist, became separated from the
main party and have never been heard
from since. George 5S. Malloch, geolo-
gist, Bjarne Mamen, his assistant and
George Breddy, a fireman, perished on
Wrangel before aid could reach them.
The story of the rescue of the survivors
from Wrangel Island was told in the
February number of Harper’s Magazine,
and in the April issue of the same maga-
zine, will be told the story of Stefansson’s
various activities after reaching shore
and of the trip over the ice from which
he and his two companions have not
returned.— Anyone who knows Stefans-
son, who is familiar with his singular
psychology, his resourcefulness and _ his
determination, would understand that
he would let nothing, not even separa-
tion from the “ Karluk” and the larger
part of his scientific staff, interfere with
the accomplishment of one of the main
objects of the Canadian Arctic Expedi-
tion — which was the exploration of as
much as possible of the unknown area
north of Alaska and western Canada.
There could be no surprise therefore at
his plan to go northward with dog teams
over the ice in search of the group of
islands or the hypothetical continent
which students of tidal phenomena have
argued exists in that area, although the
123
124
original plan had been to make the search
from Banks Land or Prince Patrick
Land with the well-equipped “ Karluk”’
as base.
Our hunting party from the “ Karluk,”
on September 20, 1913, found the ice
between the ship and the shore one
continuous jumble of chaotic ridges.
Often they were thirty-five feet high.
We were two days in covering the dis-
tance to a small sandspit five miles from
Beechey Point on the mainland. Find-
ing the ice over the warmer river water
of the Colville delta dangerously thin,
Stefinsson decided that during the
necessary waiting he would send me
with one Eskimo back to the ship for
two more men and another dog team —
so sure was he of obtaining more than
the amount of game the additional team
could haul. On the night of September
22, he wrote a letter to Captain Bartlett
and gave me explicit instructions cover-
ing every possible contingency that could
arise on the journey back to the ship.
These instructions were not needed
after midnight a
This in-
however, for just
furious northeast gale arose.
creased and continued unabated for
three days at the end of which time the
sea ice was broken off within a mile of
shore.
the
herself, she must be drifting before the
It was very evident that unless
“Karluk” had been able to free
wind westward in the ice field which
had so long been her berth. About one
week after reaching “Amouliktok” as
the sandspit is called, we ventured over
the ice of the delta, gaining the shore
September 28.
On October 3 we started westward
on the sled journey to Point Barrow.
Reaching there we found that what the
Eskimo thought was the “ Karluk” had
drifted past a week before, and that no
one had come ashore from her. Stefans-
son decided to proceed to Collinson Point
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
three hundred sled-miles east of Point
Barrow. We had learned that here Dr.
R. M. Anderson and the southern party,
which had sailed from Nome at the same
time as the “ Karluk,” in the auxiliary
vessels “Alaska”? and “Mary Sachs,”
were in safe winter quarters.
Our journey to Collinson Point was
without noteworthy incident. We had
rapidly become accustomed to sled
travel and soon Stefdnsson’s extraor-
dinary ability as an ice traveler ceased
to excite our comment. His accurate
knowledge of local conditions often saved
us from making unnecessary marches.
Driftwood is plentifully distributed every
few miles from Point Barrow to Herschel
Island, with the exception of a stretch of
forty miles across Harrison Bay and
another stretch of twenty miles across
Smith Bay. Stefaénsson knew just where
to look for this and could tell us approxi-
mately how long it would take us to
travel from our camp of that morning
to another suitable site.
Before leaving Point Barrow, he had
sent out to various Eskimo villages along
the coast south from Point Barrow to
Kotzbue, letters of instructions for Cap-
tain Bartlett in case he should reach the
coast at any point, and on the way to
Collinson Point, we left several of the
letters with Eskimo at different places
for the information of anyone who might
come ashore from the ship.
On the last day of our journey, we
gained from Stefaénsson a demonstration
of his ability in sled travel. He had
taught Wilkins and me how to pitch
camp in a blizzard and how to find
our way without the aid of a compass
by referring to the snow-drifts made by
prevailing winds. On this occasion in
a southwest blizzard, with wind blowin;
at the rate of forty-five miles an hour
and in a blinding snowstorm, Stefansson.
led us without a trail or a landmark
WITH STEFANSSON IN THE ARCTIC
of any sort for twenty miles, and at the
end of the journey was only one hun-
dred yards out of the way. On several
occasions that day, the last few hours
of which we traveled in darkness, we
entirely lost sight of him, although at
no time did he ever go more than twenty
feet ahead of the dogs.
Arriving at Collinson Point too late to
catch the outgoing mail, Stefansson, with
one companion, started for Fort Mac-
pherson to send out despatches, reports
and letters. He also made arrange-
ments there for boats and men to help
the geographers of the southern party
in the work of locating a navigable
channel from Fort Macpherson to the
mouth of the Mackenzie; he purchased
the gasoline schooner “ North Star” and
her complete outfit of tools, arms,
ammunition and provisions to take the
place of the “Karluk”; engaged ex-
perienced men, Storker Storkersen, who
had been with Leffingwell and Mikkel-
sen in 1906-07, and Ole Anderson and
Aarnout Castel, men of many years of
Arctic experience, for his contemplated
trip northward over the ice, and re-
turned to Martin Point late in February.
In the meantime, Stefansson had sent
me to Point Barrow to bring back
Jenness, whom he had left at Cape
Halkett to study the Eskimo there, and
to get the mail. I was unable to return
before March 22, the day on which the
ice party started. By having a rest of
only three hours and starting out at
night from Martin Point, I was able to
overtake the party out on the sea ice,
and I asked Stefansson to allow me to
accompany him as a member of the
supporting party. This party consisted
of Captain Bernard of the “Mary
Sachs,” Wilkins, photographer, Johan-
sen, marine biologist, and Ole Anderson.
We were to accompany Stefdnsson,
Storkersen and Castel due north for ten
125
days, carrying extra rations and dog
food.
On the second day out however,
Captain Bernard fell from a high pres-
sure ridge and had to be taken back to
shore, where the wound on his head was
sewed up and arrangements were made
with Crawford, one of the engineers, to
take his place.
On our second attempt, we came to
open water the second day. The ice
field on the opposite side was moving so
rapidly that it was considered impracti-
cable to ferry across with our improvised
sled-rafts, so Stefansson availed himself
of this temporary delay to send Wilkins
and Castel back to headquarters with
some excess baggage, and for the use of
the southern party a few seals we had
killed. They started at noon. By four
o'clock that afternoon, snow had begun
to fall heavily and the light southwest
wind had increased to about twenty-
five miles an hour. Three hours later we
were in the grasp of a hurricane that blew
at the rate of eighty-three miles an
hour. This razed one of our tents and
detached from the grounded shore ice
the floe on which we were camped. The
next day Stefansson and Storkersen
ascertained by observations that we had
drifted about forty miles to the eastward
and thirty miles out to sea.
This misfortune, which kept Wilkins
and Castel on shore, of course reduced
our party to only six men, nineteen dogs
and three sleds. We encountered fre-
quent obstacles in the form of huge pres-
sure ridges, over which trails had to be
cut with picks, and open water on sev-
eral occasions prevented us from making
rapid progress. We continued neverthe-
less steadily northward.
Two of our sleds were of the light Point
Barrow type, and soon became splint-
ered by the rough ice. (All our best
sleds were aboard the “ Karluk.’’) The
126
third sled was of the heavy Nome freight-
ing style and capable of withstanding
the hardest usage. The dogs had been
gathered from points between Fort
Macpherson and Nome, and were in
very good condition. Our tents were
light in weight and both water and
wind proof.
It usually took us an hour to pitch
camp, get dinner over and feed the dogs,
after which we would immediately roll
into our sleeping bags. Each man, be-
fore coming into the tent, was expected
to brush every particle of snow from his
clothing. This invariable rule of Stef-
Ansson’s prevented our sleeping gear
from getting damp and insured the com-
fort of every man who obeyed it. Wil-
kins and I had been chosen to do the
cooking, but when he had been left
ashore, both Anderson and Stefansson
took turns with me. It was our custom
to have breakfast at six thirty in the
morning and, as soon as the meal was
finished, everyone except the cook would
begin breaking camp, loading the sleds,
harnessing the dogs and preparing for
the start.
Stefansson would then take the lead,
carrying a small ice-pick with which to
test the ice and knock off sharp corners
in our path, and we would continue in
single file until either open water or a
pressure ridge would bring us to a halt.
The ice on which we traveled was always
in motion, so that on some days our
actual progress would be slight, even
though we had traveled many miles.
This was rather discouraging, but no
one ever thought of turning back.
Our drift proved to be to the southeast.
Storkersen took observations daily and
Johansen took soundings at every oppor-
tunity. On April 3, Storkersen’s ob-
servation was as follows: 140° 50’ 22”
W. longitude, 70° 13’ 11” N. latitude;
while his observation on the last day at
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
“Camp Separation’’, April 7, gave our
position as 140° 30’ 7” W. longitude,
70° 20’ 4’ N. latitude (about sixty-five
nautical miles from shore). We had
actually lost ground in those four days!
Johansen’s soundings, which had been
heretofore from 17 to 30 fathoms, went
abruptly from 34 fathoms to 70, 149
and 180, which proved that we were on
the edge of the Continental Shelf.
Here Stefansson decided to send Craw-
ford, Johansen and myself back to shore
with two dog teams and the two worn-
out sleds. He took with him Storkersen
and Anderson, two of the hardiest and
most experienced men in that country,
the six best dogs, the best sled and a
load of over nine hundred pounds.
This included two rifles and four hun-
dred rounds of ammunition. He told
us at parting that he would continue
northward for fifteen days before turning
back. He also left orders for one of the
ships to be taken to Banks Land, in case
the winds and current might carry the
ice on which he was traveling near
enough to the island to warrant him
making a dash for it. Since then the
party has not been seen, although the
“Polar Bear” and “ Belvedere” searched
the west and southwest coasts of Banks
Land in summer.
Our journey back to shore was rather
uneventful. There were a few tense
moments, when on one occasion, three
polar bears came up to our tent. At
another time the ice on which we were
camped broke up into small pieces,
leaving our tent within eight feet of the
edge on one side and about twelve on the
other. Three days after we separated
from Stefansson we were halted tempo-
rarily by coming to a lead so wide that
the ice field on the opposite side could
not be seen. A southwest blizzard how-
ever, closed the lead and we crossed
while the pressure ridge was forming.
WITH STEFANSSON IN THE ARCTIC
The wind at that time attained a
velocity of about seventy miles an hour,
although it did not affect the grounded
shore ice on which we then were
camped. Two days later our progress
was made difficult by the enormous pres-
sure ridges we encountered. One of
these was from twenty to forty-five feet
in height, half a mile wide, and extended
east and west as far as the eye could
reach. While on the trip out we had on
one occasion progressed eighteen miles
in ten hours. Now on one day we trav-
eled only five hundred yards in ten hours.
But we finally reached shore late in the
afternoon of April 16, on Canadian soil,
about eighty miles east of our starting
point.
Whaling captains report the spring of
1914 one of the earliest they have ever
known. Open water appeared in the
vicinity of Cape Bathurst in March and
there is every reason to believe that the
same weather conditions prevailed on
the west coast of Banks Land. There-
fore if Stefaénsson tried to reach the
island he was undoubtedly prevented by
open water.
It is possible that he has reached the
unknown land he sought and is unable to
return because of lack of sufficient food
for the journey. But experienced Arctic
men agree that the unusually early and
rapid westerly drift of the ice must have
seriously impeded his progress north
and that he is most likely adrift on the
ice-pack somewhere in the great open
sea between Banks Land and Wrangel
Island. Wherever he may be, I firmly
believe he is alive and that he could be
found by a search expedition.
He and his two companions: should
have returned to the north coast of the
continent in May or June, 1914. When
they did not do so—even in July or
August, and after two whaling captains
had searched the west coast of Banks
127
Land for traces of the party without
success, I came out to civilization with
the intention of organizing a relief ex-
pedition to search for them —and, after
I heard that the “ Karluk”’ had sunk, to
look also for the eight men who became
separated from Captain Bartlett’s main
party on the retreat over the ice to
Wrangel Island.
The plans call for a small power
schooner and two to four hydro-aéro-
planes with experienced aviators. We
would have the machines assembled at
Nome and tested before taking them to
Wrangel Island. Beginning there and
using the ship as a base, we would under-
take to search a strip of ice and water
one hundred and seventy-five miles long
by twenty miles wide daily by having
one machine (or better two, one for the
relief of the other, if needed) fly at a
height of a thousand feet carrying ob-
servers equipped with powerful glasses.
The machine would proceed one hundred
and seventy-five miles in a northwesterly
direction, turn at right angles and fly for
twenty miles, then turn again and fly
back to the ship parallel to its outgoing
course. The ship in the meantime would
have proceeded twenty miles to the east
to meet the incoming machine thus giv-
ing the change aviators and the mecha-
nician an opportunity to prepare the
second machine for the next day’s
flight.
Experienced aviators, such as make
up the board of governors of the Aéro
Club of America, and explorers, including
Peary, have approved the plans, and all
agree that the work ought to be done.
By such a plan a strip of the Arctic
Ocean one hundred and _ seventy-five
miles wide extending from Wrangel
Island, Siberia, to Herschel Island, Can-
ada, could be searched in' the summer
season of 1915 if ordinary weather con-
ditions prevailed.
N
(LL)
|
D
i
Mm
|
!
ll
rapids
—-——— route of the
1 Roosevelt-Rondon expedition
i
it
ill
i
i
CENTRAL BRAZIL AND THE NEW RIO THEODORO
Sketch map of the south-central part of the Amazon drainage system, based on the surveys of the
Brazilian Telegraphic Commission, showing the course of the Rio Theodoro and the route of the Roose-
velt-Rondon expedition. Scale, 175 miles to theinch. The inset shows the location of the main map
Reproduced by permission, in revised form, from the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society
for July, 1914
128
THE GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS OF THE ROOSEVELT-
RONDON EXPEDITION
By W. L. G. Joerg
American Geographical Society
to the excellent one of Africa
published in the London Geographi-
cal Journal in 1911 — showing the state
of our knowledge, a year ago, of the
. topography of South America, we would
find right in the heart of the continent a
blank space as large and as long as
Nevada. Across the whole length of
this unknown territory lay the route of
the Roosevelt-Rondon expedition. Its
borders were long well known, although
in some cases accurate surveys had not
been made until recent years. To the
northwest lies the Madeira River, one
of the most important highways of the
Amazon basin, the authoritative survey
of which was carried out in 1878 by an
American naval officer, Commander
T. O. Selfridge; to the north lies a
group of three rivers, the Canuma,
Abacaxis and Maué-asst, whose lower
courses, which drain into a backwater
connecting the Madeira and the Amazon,
have been known since Chandless’
survey in 1868; to the east flows the
Tapajoz, one of the main affluents of the
Amazon, long known and in 1895-6
more accurately explored by the French
traveler Coudreau; and, finally, to the
southwest the unknown area is bounded
by the Gy-Parand, which was properly
mapped only in 1907 on one of Colonel
Rondon’s previous expeditions. These
expeditions were undertaken on behalf
of the Brazilian government to construct
a telegraph line to the rubber settle-
ments on the Madeira and resulted in
the exploration of the whole little-known
highland region extending from the
| we could consult a map — similar
upper Paraguay to the upper Madeira,
together with the drainage systems of
both slopes. It was on the occasion of
the second of these expeditions, in 1909,
that Colonel Rondon came across the
headwaters of a river flowing northward.
To follow it to its mouth was the object
of the 1914 expedition. It might have
veered to the left and turned out to be
nothing but a source-stream of the Gy-
Parana; or it might have bent eastward
and developed into a tributary of the
Juruena, one of the sources of the Tapa-
joz. It did neither. It flowed almost
due north and thereby crossed the
unknown area from end toend. Therein
lies the importance of the discovery.
The new river thus turns out to be
the longest known tributary of the
Madeira; its length is about 900 miles
and it extends over seven degrees of
latitude. Its position permits various
conjectures as to the hydrography of
the region.
To the west, between it and the Gy-
Parana, the interval seems too small to
allow a river system of any consider-
able size to develop; this area is proba-
bly drained in opposite directions by
their tributaries. A remark in Colonel
Roosevelt’s book! would seem to cor-
roborate this assumption. He tells of
hearing of one of the rubber-gatherers
who lost his way while working on the
Gy-Parana and, after wandering about
for twenty-eight days, finally came out
on the Maderainha River, which is a
1 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS. By
Theodore Roosevelt. Charles Scribner’s Sons,
New York, 1914.
129
130
small stream joining the new river from
the left in about 83° S. latitude.
On the other hand, to the east of the
new river, between it and the Tapajoz,
it is quite possible that larger rivers
exist. Indeed, Colonel Roosevelt’s nar-
rative makes this very likely. In lati-
tude 7° 34’ the new river was joined
from the right by a stream of equal size.
That this stream extended up at least
as far as 8° 48’ had been established
shortly before by the Amazonas Bound-
ary Commission, which ascended to this
latitude. It did not even seem unlikely
that it might be the lower course of a
river, named the Anands, whose head-
waters the expedition had crossed before
reaching the new river; in which case it
would practically have the same length.
This problem, we are told, may be
solved soon, as one of Colonel Rondon’s
subordinates was to attempt the descent
of the Anands this year.
The existence of another large river
in this area is made plausible by a
further reference in Colonel Roosevelt’s
book. The year previous, he was told,
five Indian rubber-gatherers were work-
ing on the Canumaé in about 9° S. lati-
tude, thus establishing that it extends
at least as far south as this. Chandless’
survey did not go above 5° 17’, but the
size of the river at this point —in
contrast with the Abacaxis to the east,
which, in 6° 12’, was a very small stream
with the boughs of the trees on its banks
joining overhead — made it probable
that it rose far to the south. This
supposition is expressed on various
Brazilian maps, where the Canuma is
made to drain the whole region between
the Madeira and the Tapajoz and thus,
indeed, to usurp the area which, it has
developed, is tributary to the new river.
The previous references to the activi-
ties of the rubber-gatherers in this re-
gion may have called up in the reader’s
THE-AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
mind the question how the expedition
can be portrayed as having traversed
unknown territory. It is true that the
“unknown” river had been ascended
for two-thirds of its length by these men
on their search for rubber; the expedi-
tion came across the first of them in
10° 24’. Indeed, they had a name for it,
calling it the Castanha above the con-
fluence with the river joining it in 7° 34’,
and the lower Aripuanan below this
point; the right affluent entering here
they termed the upper Aripuanan, con-
sidering it the main stream. On the
upper Aripuanan they had ascended to
above 9°. But, to use Colonel Roose-
velt’s words, “the governmental and
scientific authorities, native and foreign,
remained in complete ignorance”; no
map conveyed an inkling of these facts
except the location of the confluence of
the Aripuanan with the Madeira. The
reason is obvious. Pioneers, although
often the first in a new region, generally
do not bring back information which
can be utilized geographically. In our
own West many a miner has been the
first white man to go up a mountain,
valley or to cross a snowy pass; but the
world at large knew nothing of the region
until the surveyor had been there.
Whenever a region is newly explored,
the geographer’s first wish is to see an
authentic map of it. In the present case
he is doomed to some disappointment.
Two of the three maps in Colonel
Roosevelt’s book represent the new river
in some detail. One is a sketch map on
the scale of 105 miles to an inch showing
the river by itself. While based on the
astronomical positions given in the text,
a certain stiffness of line and the lack
of relation to the surrounding regions
betoken an ungeographical hand. The
other is a general map of Brazil on the
scale of 240 miles to the inch prepared by
the Brazilian Telegraphic Commission
THE ROOSEVELT-RONDON EXPEDITION
and forwarded by Lieutenant Lyra, who
had charge of the survey of the river.
This is far more satisfactory. On it
the drainage of the whole region between
the upper Paraguay and the Madeira
is represented according to the surveys
of Colonel Rondon’s expedition of 1909;
on it, above all, is the first authentic
representation of the new river. Here it
has the verisimilitude of nature, but it is
unfortunately on too small a scale to
show much more than a general outline.
What the geographer would like is a map
such as that published on the scale of
sixteen miles to the inch, of an expedi-
tion through similar country from the
Xingti to the Tapajoz, by the German
zoologist, Miss Snethlage, whom Colonel
Roosevelt met in Belem. But this is
almost an ideal case; and it would seem
proper to expect the desired information
rather from the Brazilian party of the
expedition, whose aim was _ primarily
geographical, than from the American
party, whose aim was primarily zodlogi-
cal. Doubtless a satisfactory map will
be, or has been, published in Colonel
Rondon’s official report, but if it is as
inaccessible as are the surveys of his
previous expeditions, the present mate-
rial will long have to satisfy our wants.!
In discussing Colonel Rondon’s previ-
ous explorations, Colonel Roosevelt says
that they “received no recognition by
the geographical societies of Europe or
the United States.” This is indeed
true — although they did not escape the
vigilance of the leading German geo-
graphical periodical. Inaccessibility of
the official reports, even to the special-
1 The authentic map of the river has just come
to hand, since the above was written. It accom-
panies the London Geographical Journal for
February, 1915. It is on the relatively large
scale of 64 miles to the inch and is reduced from
a manuscript map supplied by Colonel Roosevelt,
which is based on the surveys made by Lieuten-
ants J. S. Lyra and Pyrineos de Sousa under the
direction of Colonel Rondon.— W. L.°G. J.
131
ist, is the main reason. One of the great
merits of Colonel Roosevelt’s book lies
in the fact that he has made us familiar
with the highly important work of the
Brazilian Telegraphic Commission. The
only original map showing the results of
these explorations, which diligent search
has revealed, appeared in a Rio de Janeiro
newspaper, although it seems very prob-
able that the ultimate source goes back
to some official report. This delinea-
tion, which was reproduced in the Ger-
man periodical referred to, is incorporated
on the accompanying map for the region
between the upper Paraguay and the
upper Madeira. To this have been added
the new river as represented on the map
of the Brazilian Telegraphic Commission
accompanying Colonel Roosevelt’s book
and the various features earlier referred
to, in an endeavor to present as correct
a picture of the region as possible. Ref-
erence to any standard map or atlas will
show how greatly it differs.
The difficulties which further beset
the conscientious interpreter of this
important journey are well illustrated
by the question of name. As soon as it
developed on the expedition that the
new river was a major stream and not
simply one of the headwaters of the
Gy-Paranaé or the Juruena, it was
formally christened “Rio Roosevelt”
by Colonel Rondon on orders received
from the Brazilian government before
his departure. Subsequently — because
of the difficulty of pronunciation for
Brazilians, it is understood — Colonel
Roosevelt’s Christian name was sub-
stituted. On two of the maps accom-
panying his book this name is given as
“Rio Téodoro.” This is the Spanish
form; in Portuguese the name would be
Theodoro. Although it is rather pre-
sumptuous to question the accuracy of
the name used by an explorer to desig-
nate the object of his discovery, the
132
latter form is used on the accompanying
map, as it seems the more plausible and
the Portuguese names throughout the
book are not always correctly rendered.
Besides those relating to the discovery
of the new river Colonel Roosevelt’s
book permits various other deductions
of geographical interest. The last rapids
were encountered in about latitude
7° 30’ S., just below the mouth of the
upper Aripuanan. ‘This point is worthy
of note, as the last rapids on the south-
ern tributaries of the Amazon indicate
the boundary between two of the major
physiographic provinces of South Amer-
ica, the Brazilian Highlands and the
Amazon Lowlands. This boundary
similar to the “fall line” between our
own Atlantic coastal plain and_ the
Appalachian piedmont region — lies in-
creasingly farther upstream as _ one
proceeds from east to west. Thus, on
the Xingti it lies in 3° S.; on the Tocan-
tins, in 4°; on the Tapajoz, in 43°; on
the Maué-assti, in 5°; on the Canuma,
probably in 6°; and on the Madeira, in
82° S. Its location in 73° S. on the
Rio Theodoro, between the Canumé and
the Madeira, therefore indicates that the
even outline of this natural boundary
is not here interrupted. The last rapids
are also of importance in marking the
upper limit of steam navigation —a
barrier which, in the case of the Ma-
deira, has been overcome by the con-
struction of a railroad (see map),
opened in 1912, which connects with navi-
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
gable waters on the Mamoré River above.
The contrast between two other
natural provinces was very noticeable
to the members of the expedition. On
the upland plateau of Matto Grosso,
which separates the south- and south-
west-flowing drainage of the upper
Paraguay and the Guaporé from the
north- and northeast-flowing drainage
of the Madeira and Amazon tributaries,
the prevailing type of vegetation is open
grassland. To the north lies the jungle
of the equatorial forest. The route of
the expedition led from the one into the
other north of Vilhena in about 123° S.
The former is strikingly pictured in the
illustration facing page 174, the latter
in the illustrations facing pages 248 and
262 of Colonel Roosevelt’s book.
Many other references throughout the
book are of geographic interest, such as
those on the economic possibilities of the
Matto Grosso plateau, on the Parecis
and Nhambiquara Indians, and, in the
appendices, the pertinent classification
of travelers in South America and the
comment on the paleogeography of the
continent. But above and beyond all
this is the record of human achievement.
Hardships and dangers there were, even
the stern realities of murder and death;
but what are these to spirits kindred to
that gallant band in the frozen South,
over whose grave is so fittingly inscribed,
in the words of the grand old rover of
the days when the world was young, the
eternal longing of the race?
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DANIEL GIRAUD ELLIOT
Mammalogist and Ornithologist
Dr. Elliot’s personal collection of birds (1869) was the first material of any
kind that the American Museum owned, and his purchases and gifts laid the
foundation for the great department of mammalogy and ornithology
DANIEL GIRAUD ELLIOT
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ON THE OCCASION OF HIS EIGHTIETH
BIRTHDAY TO EMPHASIZE HIS LONG DEVOTION TO SCIENTIFIC
WORK AND HIS SERVICES TO THE MUSEUM
HE month of March, 1915, brings
the eightieth anniversary of the
birth of Daniel Giraud Elliot,
the man who with the late Professor
Albert S. Bickmore shares the honor of
being one of the two scientific founders
of the American Museum of Natural
History. The original collection of
birds belonging to Dr. Elliot was the
nucleus of the Museum’s later riches
and his purchases and gifts laid the
foundation of the great department of
mammals and birds. Also from the
standpoint of knowledge in natural
history, he was authority in New York
City at the time of the foundation of
the Museum, the best-equipped, practi-
cally the only man able to give advice
in scientific matters relating to the
institution. Thus to the trustees of
the Museum, men of business who
wished to promote science and build up
a great educational and scientific institu-
tion, Dr. Elliot was an efficient guide.
Professor Bickmore conceived the idea
of the Museum; he gave his effort to
create interest in the plans and to raise
funds to carry them out, but he came
to Dr. Elliot for advice involving scien-
tific knowledge.
In the winter of 1868-69 when Pro-
fessor Bickmore had just returned from
the Malay Archipelago and the charter
for the Museum had lately been given
to the body of New York merchants, he
especially depended upon Dr. Elhot for
advice. He hoped also to obtain Elhot’s
collection of birds to start the exhibits
of the new Museum. The collection
consisted of some one thousand speci-
mens, a large number for that early
time, covering most of the described
species of North America. It had been
accumulated during a period of ten to
fifteen years, in fact ever since Elliot’s
early boyhood. This collection at the
moment was of considerable concern to
Elliot because he was planning to go
abroad for an indefinite period of study.
No storage building at that time was
fireproof and there was also the danger
from moths. ‘Therefore when Professor
Bickmore suggested that he dispose of
the collection to the new Museum, he
accepted the plan. This particular col-
lection was the first material of any kind
the Museum obtained. It was turned
over to J. G. Bell, then the leading tax1-
dermist in New York, and as fast as
mounted the birds were put on exhibition
in the Arsenal in Central Park, where the
Museum had its temporary quarters.
Among the specimens in this collec-
tion were five of the Labrador duck.!
1The following facts were gained from Dr.
Elliot regarding the disappearance of the Labra-
dor duck at the time he was a boy:
The cause of the extinction of the Labrador
duck is a mystery. The bird was a strong flier
and a sea duck, having no special enemies that
anyone knew of, and in the earliest part of the last
century was a very common bird. Imperceptibly
its numbers began to grow less, a fact that at
first excited very little comment. When Elliot
as a boy in continually adding to his bird collec-
tion visited the New York markets, especially
Washington and Fulton, he would find many
Labrador ducks hanging up for sale, sometimes
as many as would make a barrel of them. After
a few years, he found however, that the full-
plumaged males did not appear, that the birds
the markets received were mostly females and
young males. Then it began to dawn upon those
interested that the bird was gradually becoming
extinct, and it seemed from that time on to fade
rapidly out of existence. ‘The last bird that Dr.
Elliot received, a splendidly full-plumaged male
which is in the Museum now, was killed on Long
Island.
133
154
This bird is now wholly extinct with
only forty specimens known in all the
collections of the world. The American
Museum is highly fortunate therefore.
Dr. Elliot’s five specimens are exhibited
in group form, one of the most valuable
of the bird groups in the Museum.
At the last sale of this bird one specimen
brought five thousand dollars.
At the time of the foundation of the
American Muse-
um, New York
City was practi-
eally destitute of
any scientific in-
stitutions except
the Lyceum of
Natural History.
This was holding
its small meetings
presided over by
Major Delafield,
in a room loaned
through the cour-
tesy of the Col-
lege of Physicians
and Surgeons at
1The second an-
nual dinner of the
Linnean Society of
New York was held
March 24,1914. Dr.
Daniel Giraud Elliot
of the American Mu-
seum of Natural His-
tory, veteran orni-
thologist and mam-
malogist, was the
principal guest, and there was a notable gath-
ering of scientists from all over the East to
do him honor. Many of those present either
recounted what they owed him personally or testi-
fied to his creative ability when ornithology as a
science was still in its infancy in this country.
Among those who spoke were Professor Henry
Fairfield Osborn, president of the American Mu-
seum of Natural History, and Dr. F. A. Lucas,
director; Dr. Witmer Stone of the Philadelphia
Academy of Sciences; Drs. T. S. Palmer and A.
J. Fisher of the Biological Survey at Washington;
Messrs. Ernest Thompson Seton and Ernest
Ingersoll, the well-known writers on animal life.
Other prominent scientists present were Dr. Frank
M. Chapman, Mr. W. DeW. Miller, Dr. John
H. Sage, Dr.;Louis B. Bishop, Dr. William T.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Fourth Avenue and Fourteenth Street,
then the northern boundary of the city.
There were few natural history asso-
ciates therefore with whom Elliot could
compare notes. The conditions of the
time were vividly stated by Dr. Elliot in
his address before the Linnean Society
of New York! in March, 1914:
I do not suppose my boyhood was different
from that of any other lad interested in
natural history. I
began to make a
collection of birds
—why I began I
have no idea, prob-
ably could not help
it—and when it
verged toward com-
pletion I did not
know what to do
with it, for there
was no one of my
age anywhere to be
found who sympa-
thized with me in
my pursuit; I was
practically alone.
My cousin, Jacob
Giraud, author of
the Birds of Long
Island, had just en-
tered upon the close
of his career, and
wrote no more.
Audubon had en-
tered upon the last
years of his life;
DeKay had but re-
cently died in Al-
Daniel Giraud Elliot at thirty years of age
Hornaday, director of the New York Zodlogical
Park, and Dr. C. H. Townsend, director of the
New York Aquarium. At the close of the speech-
making the Society presented Dr. Elliot with the
Linnzan medal of honor, as a testimony of its
appreciation of his preéminent position in orni-
thology and mammalogy. In reply Dr. Elliot
spoke of the science of ornithology as it existed
sixty years ago at the beginning of his career;
touched upon experiences in the past with many
members of the Museum staff who were present
that evening, and closed with a few words of
advice and encouragement to the younger gener-
ation, given with that kindliness of spirit which
has endeared him to the hearts of those who at-
tempt to follow in his footsteps.— Secretary,
LINN AN Society oF New York.
DANIEL GIRAUD ELLIOT — BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
bany; and in all the cities and within the
boundaries of our great state, there was but
one working ornithologist, George Newbold
Lawrence, a man greatly older than my-
self, whose sons were my friends and com-
panions, but who had not inherited their
father’s scientific tastes. Lawrence’s collec-
tions seemed larger and more wonderful to
my youthful eyes than any I have since seen
in all the museums of the world.
The condition in New York was pretty
much repeated in other parts of the country.
In Massachusetts there were no ornitholo-
gists. Neither Allen nor Brewster had ap-
peared and their predecessor, Brewer, had
hardly been heard
from. In Wash-
ington the work
was represented
by Baird, who had
just come to the
Smithsonian In-
stitution. There
was no other natu-
ralist in Washing-
ton. Gillasa boy
had begun his
work on _ fishes,
but the young
naturalists, Coues
and Ridgway had
not yet been heard
from
Philadelphia
was much better
off however. Its
ornithology was
represented by
George Cassin,
one of the most
erudite and com-
petent ornitholo-
gists this country
has ever produced
and the only one
at that time famil-
iar with exotic
forms.!
The city had its
Academy and li-
brary donated
mainly by Dr.
Thomas B. Wil-
son. Also Leidy
was at the height
of his career. I
135
used to work a good deal in the old building
on the corner of Broad and Sansom streets,
my companion often Cope, then starting on
his career, his alcoholic snakes and lizards
contesting table space with my birds.
In all the length and breadth of the land
there was not a periodical devoted to the ways
of birds, and it was hard sledging for any
young ornithologist. The vast majority of
1A few years later through the publication of
his Monographs, Elliot was brought into rather
intimate relationship with Cassin, owing to the
fact that the latter was the head of the firm of
Bowen and Company (who served
sO many years).
Audubon for
Dr. Elliot in 1897, when curator of zodlogy at Field Museum, Chicago
sie]jop pursnoy) oay
jo oo1ud & 4YUsnoO1q pos UST
-loods 4se] of, “PpytomM oy
jo suinesnur ot} [[e@ Ul suOUT
-loods UMOUY AQIOJ ATWO O1B
e104) pue sivoA AQ JOUIJXO
usoq sey soloeds 94, ‘“698T
ul WWnesNy, 9Y} JO uOoTssessod
oy) OFUL OUTRO YOM OTL
‘Iq JO UOMjooT[00 [RUrst10
94} Woda SUsUTIO0dS JO SUI}SIS
-u0d Wnosnfy UROLIOWIYy ot)
ut dnois & WOdIJ Sprig MOY
Mona
YOCVHEVT LONILXa4
9€T
the books which are
our daily companions
now and which we
keep always within
the reach of our hand,
had not even been
conceived, much less
printed. With the
exception of that of
Lawrence, there was
no private collection
of birds of any mo-
ment in the whole
country —of which
the Mississippi was
the western bound-
ary. It was but the
glimmering of the
dawn of that glorious
day that was to pro-
duce the famous com-
pany of some of the
greatest naturalists
the world has ever
seen, most of whom
had already crossed
the river.
In the summer
of 1869 Dr. Elhot
went abroad _ pri-
marily for study
but also with a
commission from
the trustees
through Robert L.
Stuart, president
of the Museum
(who had succeeded John David Wolfe,
the first president), to purchase for the
Museum any material that he thought
advisable.
wied had lately died and the family de-
material in Europe.
Prince Maximilian of Neu-
sired to dispose of his collections which
he had made on his different journeys
through South America and the western
part of the United States. Dr. Elliot
therefore visited Neuwied soon after
arriving in Europe, taking a letter of
introduction from the Princess Waldeck
to the Prince of Wied.t He found the
collections valuable because in a state
Robert L. Stuart — The trustees of the Museum, through Robert L.
Stuart, president, gave large commissions to Dr. Elliot for purchases of
It was in this way that the Museum gained such
valuable possessions as the Verreaux and Maximilian collections
1The following . interesting reminiscence is
quoted from conversation with Dr. Elliot: ‘‘ I was
very cordially received by the Prince, whom I
found to be a young man of perhaps twenty-six
or twenty-seven, unmarried, living at the time
in the Palace in the wood a few miles from the
town, with his mother, the Dowager Princess, and
his sister Elizabeth.
My stay in Neuwied, which lasted several days,
was very pleasant. I met the Princess Elizabeth,
then about eighteen years old, afterward so well
known as Carmen Sylva. She showed me in the
park the places where they went to hear the stags
roar during the hunting season. At that time
the present King of Rumania, who was Prince
Charles of Hohenzollern, had arrived in Europe
from Rumania, and it was,generally understood
that he was on search for a wife. One afternoon
when the Princess was walking with me, she spoke
of the matter and wondered whom he would take.
A day or so afterward the Prince, a very pleasant,
137
138
of excellent preservation, and containing
the principal types of both the mammals
and birds which the Prince had de-
scribed. He therefore made the pur-
chase and had the collection sent to the
Museum.
Another purchase was selected from
the Verreaux Collection in Paris. The
Messrs. Verreaux in the Place Royale in
Paris had for many years been recog-
nized as the largest dealers in natural
history objects then in Europe and their
collection of mammals and birds, shells
and other material represented speci-
mens from all over the world. Dr.
Elliot spent several months studying
the collections and as rapidly as he
selected birds or mammals, they were
mounted by Verreaux and shipped to
New York until several thousand speci-
mens had been obtained.
Still a third collection which though
very much smaller than the Manxi-
milian or Verreaux, yet afforded some
very valuable specimens, was that of
Mme. Verdray. From her he got many
rare specimens, as the collection was not
a general one but consisted more particu-
larly of species which were rare and
difficult to procure.
He also obtained valuable specimens
from Frank of Amsterdam, a dealer on a
considerable scale who obtained material
from the Eastern Archipelago, his Dutch
connections giving him greater facilities
for such enterprise than had any other
person in the trade.
It was in the Museum of Messrs.
Verreaux in Paris that a group! com-
frank personage, arrived in Neuwied, and I with
the many others was a guest at the grand dinner
given in his honor at the Palace in the wood.
It was during that visit that he became engaged
to Princess Elizabeth.
1The group was done fairly well and had re-
ceived the gold medal at one of the great exposi-
tions. The animals and the man’s face too were
strikingly well done — for the time. This group
stood in the hall of the Arsenal and afterward in
less and less conspicuous positions in the new
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
posed of an Arab on a camel attacked
by two lions was purchased — not by
Dr. Elliot however who preferred to put
the 20,000 francs to a purpose more
valuable to technical science, but by
one of the trustees from New York who
was visiting him.
Besides these larger collections Dr.
Elliot was able to pick up valuable
single specimens from time to time
during his stay in Europe. He one day
chanced to find in a_ taxidermist’s
window in London a specimen of a
great auk in winter plumage, which he
purchased for one hundred and _ five
pounds.’
It was on one of the rare visits that
Dr. Elliot made to New York during his
stay in Europe that he succeeded in
obtaining still further valuable bird ma-
terial for the Museum. This had be-
longed to his friend, Dr. A. L. Heerman,
had been collected in the western and
southwestern portions of the United
States, and kept in unusually perfect
condition. The collection was bought
by Dr. Elliot and presented by him to the
Museum. Added to his own one thou-
sand birds which the Museum had gained
possession of several years before, it
brought the American Museum’s col-
lections as regards the birds of North
America to a state unsurpassed in num-
bers and importance by any other col-
lection of the time, unless perhaps by
that of the National Museum at Wash-
ington.
On his final return in the early eighties
building in Manhattan Square but has consider-
able value to-day from the historical standpoint.
It is now in the possession of the Carnegie Mu-
seum, Pittsburg.
2 This specimen has a prominent place to-day
in the bird collection on the second floor of the
Museum. The label announces that it is the gift
of Robert L. Stuart, which reminds us of the fact
that when the great auk shipped by Dr. Elliot
arrived in New York, it was paid for by the per-
sonal check of Mr. Stuart, then president of the
Museum.
DANIEL GIRAUD ELLIOT — BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
after a sojourn abroad of nearly ten
years, he brought with him a large col-
lection of humming birds, made during
his stay in Europe. At that time it was
probably the most complete in the world.
He had had the great good fortune to be
present when large collections of hum-
ing birds, like the Boucier, Mulsant and
others, had been broken up and sold,
and had therefore fortunately been able
to make selections from them all, gain-
ing many rare species and a number of
types.
In 1887 when moving from New
Brighton, Staten Island, where he had
made his home since his return from
Europe, he gave this collection to the
Museum in the case that he had had
made forit. At about the same time the
Museum gained Dr. Elliot’s books, a
very full working library for ornitholo-
gists, practically complete for the time
with the exception of the serial publica-
tions.
Dr. Elliot has traveled in connection
with his work more than have most
naturalists. He visited the West In-
dian Islands when scarcely out of boy-
hood and also the southern portion of
the United States, his curiosity and his
desire to study and collect specimens
greatly excited by the strange birds and
mammals that he saw. In 1857 more
than ten years before the founding of
the American Museum, he went to Rio
de Janeiro and did some study and
collecting in Brazil. Immediately after,
he went to Europe, of course with his
interests as ornithologist and sportsman
uppermost, passed from Malta to Sicily
and on to Egypt, giving a few months
to a trip up the Nile, shooting and
preparing specimens. He returned to
Cairo, formed a party and with camels
crossed the long desert to Palestine. On
reaching the eastern side of the Sinaitic
PeninsuJa, he journeyed to the land
139
of Moab visiting the ancient city of
Petra (capital of Esau’s kingdom), also
going to Bethlehem and Jerusalem and
on into Palestine as far as Damascus,
crossing the Lebanon Mountains at an
altitude of ten thousand feet, and re-
turning to Europe from Beirut.
Later in life he made two zoological
trips to Alaska, once as a member of the
Harriman Expedition, the researches of
which in many volumes are still in the
course of publication.
In 1896 he was commissioned by the
Field Museum of Natural History in
Chicago [he had gone there in 1894 as
head of the department of zodlogy] to
lead an expedition into Africa to get
specimens for the institution. He spent
a year in passing through Somaliland
and Ogaden and was on his way to the
Boran country when he was prevented
by illness from carrying on the work.
This expedition was highly successful in
obtaining specimens of the African spe-
cies of quadrupeds many of which are on
exhibition in the Field Museum to-day.
Also somewhat later he led an expedition
for the Field Museum into the Olympic
Mountains.
He has spent eighteen months in an
alound-the-world journey since 1906
when he began the preparation of his re-
cently published Review of the Primates.
He had not progressed very far in the
preparation for this work when he
realized how impossible it was to do
much on the subject in the United States
since representatives of the Primates
from either the Eastern or Western
Hemispheres are very few in American
museums. He therefore sailed for Eu-
rope in April 1907 and did not return
until 1909. During this time he visited
place after place, studying the types of
lemurs and monkeys both in museums
and zoological gardens. After working
in one after another of the large Euro-
140
pean museums, he went to Egypt, went
up the Nile to the second cataract and
then directed his course to India. He
studied monkeys of various species there,
still other species in Ceylon, and then
went over from Calcutta to Rangoon and
passed through Burma, going as far north
as Mandalay, the old capital on the Ira-
wadi River. Returning to Rangoon he
passed over to the Straits Settlements
and visited the museums and zodlogical
gardens there. He went from Singa-
pore to Java and stopped at Batavia
for some time. Returning to Singapore
he moved to Hong Kong, passed up the
river to Canton, and then returning
went to Shanghai. Then he journeyed
eight hundred miles up the Yang-tse-
kiang River to Hankow, and from there
crossed through the heart of China, to
Peking, to Tien-tsin, and back by sea to
Shanghai. From China he went to
Japan, passing through the Inland Sea
and landing at Kobe; then to Kioto,
where he remained a considerable time
because exceedingly interested in the
zoological gardens and in the wild mon-
keys which inhabited the forests all
around the city. He visited the places
in Japan likely to further his researches,
and then started for home. On his way
to San Francisco he visited a number
of the islands of the Honolulu group,
among them the one on which is Mauna
Loa, the smaller voleano at the foot of
Mauna Loa being in action at the time
of his visit.
After reaching the United States, Dr.
Elliot came at once to the American
Museum to devote
research in hand. Somewhat later he
went again to Europe — to London, Paris
Leiden, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna and
Munich, to do certain comparative
study still necessary. Comparative data
on Primates was difficult to obtain.
For more than a century they have been
himself to the
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
a subject for study by naturalists in
many countries and thus the types are
to be found in all corners of the earth —
wherever scientific research has been
done. Since the material is so greatly
scattered, it could seldom be brought
side by side for comparison of charac-
teristics. Thus the monograph proved
to be an immense labor — which was
conscientiously accomplished. The work
now finished is an elaborate treat-
ment, in three quarto volumes, of the
lemurs and monkeys of the Old and New
Worlds, as well as of the anthropoid
apes. It was published as a mono-
graph! of the American Museum.
Dr. Elliot is the author of many
volumes? besides the recent Review of
1 The series of illustrations in Dr. Elliot’s mono-
graph (from photographs by A. E. Anderson)
both in fidelity to nature and artistic treat-
ment of half tones, are of an excellence never
before reached in works on osteology or craniol-
ogy. As reviewers have said, ‘‘....by means of
more than one hundred photographic plates of
skulls, giving lateral, frontal, ventral and dorsal
views, the close student of the monkeys has all
the world’s types, as it were, brought to him.
The value of these plates cannot be overesti-
mated, and the work would be a notable one
were it merely a portfolio of them.’’
2 The following is a list of some of the important
publications of Dr. Elliot:
A Monograph of the Tetraonine, or Family of
the Grouse. 27 pls. col., with descriptive
letterpress. fol. New York, 1864-1865.
A Monograph of the Pittide, or Family of the
Ant Thrushes. 31 pls. col., with descriptive
letterpress. fol. New York, 1867. (Second
edition, pp. xxiii, 1 tab., 51 pls. col., with
descriptive letterpress. London, 1893-95.)
The New and Heretofore Unfigured Species of
the Birds of North America. 2 vol. illust.
col. fol. New York, 1869.
A Monograph of the Phasianide, or Family of
the Pheasants. 2 vols. illust. col. fol. New
York, 1872.
A Monograph of the Paradiseide, or Birds of
Paradise. 37 pls. col., with descriptive letter-
press. fol. London, 1873.
A Monograph of the Bucerotidae, or Family of
the Hornbills. 59 pls. col., with descriptive
letterpress. fol. London, 1876-82.
A Classification and Synopsis of the Trochi-
lide. pp. xii, 277. text illust. (Smithson-
ian Contributions to Knowledge) 4°. Wash-
ington, 1879.
A Monograph of the Felide, or Family of the
Cats. 43 pls. col., with descriptive letter-
press. fol. London, 1883.
DANIEL GIRAUD ELLIOT— BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Primates and in addition to hundreds of
papers published in scientific journals
here and abroad. Some of his books
such as North American Shore Birds and
The Wild Fowl of the United States and
British Possessions have had some educa-
tional influence in bringing about the
popular interest in birds that exists in
this decade in America. These books
are wholly untechnical in character, and
were designed largely for sportsmen and
bird lovers.
Dr. Elliot stood as an expert adviser
for the Museum in its early days. The
American Museum would not forget that
North American Shore Birds: A History of the
Snipes, Sandpipers, Plovers and their Allies.
pp. xvi, 268. 74 pls. text illust. 8°. New
York, 1895.
The Gallinaceous Game Birds of North Amer-
ica. pp. 220. 46 pls. and color chart.
8°. London, 1897.
The Wild Fowl of the United States and British
Possessions, or the Swans, Geese, Ducks and
Mergansers of North America. pp. xxii,
316. 63 pls. 8°. New York, 1898.
Synopsis of the Mammals of North America
and the Adjacent Seas. Field Col. Museum
Publ. 1901.
The Land and Sea Mammals of Middle America
and the West Indies. 2 vols. Field Col.
Museum Publ. 1904.
A Check List of the Mammals of the North
American Continent, the West Indies and the
Neighboring Seas. Field Col. Museum Publ.
1905.
A Catalogue of the Collection of Mammals in
the Field Columbian Museum. 1907.
A Review of the Primates. 3 vols. 11 color pls.
32 pls. American Museum of Natural His-
tory, 1913.
The Life and Habits of Wild Animals. [In
collaboration with J. Wolf]. 4°. 1874.
141
time or that obligation. In giving him
congratulations and heartfelt wishes at
this anniversary, we would go back with
him to the young days as he recalls the
joy of his early collections, the joy of the
travel and the work, the joy throughout
the years of continued learning and dis-
covery, the joy too of feeling himself a
very palpable support to the Museum
during the days of its greatest need,
before it had even a home of its own.
He said at the Linnean Society dinner
two years ago: “As I look around upon
this assembly and see so many naturalists
gathered here, I am instinctively carried
back into the long ago when New York
and the Museum and I were young.
There is no one here who remembers that
time —for I am the sole survivor of
those days.”
The American Museum of to-day
gives him greeting with grateful recog-
nition and appreciation of those days.
From all departments the institution
extends to Daniel Giraud Elliot the
welcome of fellowship in scientific en-
deavor — whenever to-day he walks
through her galleries and laboratories,
viewing their present gigantic propor-
tions, seeing also the promised growth
of the next few years, and through the
eyes of memory living again the insti-
tution’s early days of which he was so
intimately a factor and a guiding in-
fluence.
MUSEUM NOTES
Stncz the last issue of the JouRNAL the
following persons have become members of
the Museum:
Associate Founder, Mr. J. P. Moraan;
Associate Benefactor, Mr. Tuomas Der
Wirt CuyLer;
Patron, Mr. Grorce F. Baker;
Life Members, Mrs. JAMES M. Lawton,
Miss Epiru W. Tiemann, Master Henry 8.
Repmonp, and Messrs. Epwarp W. C.
Arnotp, Max Wm. Stour, JAMES STREAT
and FrREDERIC DELANO WEEKES;
Sustaining Member, Mr. J. KENNEDY Top;
Annual Members, Mrs. Fritz ACHELIS,
Mrs. GrorGe Percivat Cooutrmas, Mrs. M.
E. Dwicut, Mrs. M. C. Escuwece, Mrs.
Currorp Harmon, Mrs. CHartes M.
Mucunic, Mrs. Routanp RepmMonp, Mrs.
FraNKtyn B. Sanpers, Mrs. C. F. Swan,
Mrs. Cuarues B. Towns, Misses E. H.
Davison, NatHauig F. Low, Dr. ADELAIDE
Mitts, Dr. W. G. Eckstein, Dr. BERNARD
Sacus, Master Wixtui1aAM T. Biopcert, 3d,
Master Howarp G. CusHIne, JR., MASTER
RaupH StowEevtt Rowunps, Jr., and Messrs.
Cuarues B. CoLtesrook, C. B. Davison, W.
H. Euuis, Sou. Futp, THomas Francis Fox,
FREDERICK FRELINGHUYSEN, RicHARD H.
Gosman, ALEXANDER Hamitton, F. J.
Huntinaton, Francis DrMitr JAcKsoN,
Epq@ar A. Levy, ALpHons Lewis, Horace
R. Moorneap, A. W. Parker, FREDERICK
H. Parrerson, AuFRED L. Simon, Leo L.
Srron, Epwin H. Stern, Moses J. Srroock
and Matcoutm Herrick TALLMAN.
A rorMAL word of greeting and apprecia-
tion was extended by the trustees and mem-
bers of the staff of the American Museum to
Dr. Daniel Giraud Elliot on the occasion
of the eightieth anniversary of his birth,
March 7, 1835.
Tue recent Indian disturbances in eastern
Utah and adjoining territory are of interest
to the Museum, since the department of
anthropology is engaged in an extensive and
intensive survey of all the Shoshonean Plateau
tribes. In the newspaper accounts the
Paiute are made to figure as the trouble-
makers. From the geographical data at hand
it appears that they are not identical with the
tribe so designated by ethnologists, since both
the Northern and Southern Paiute, using
142
accepted scientific terminology, live well to
the west of the area in question, which does
form the home of the Southern Ute. One
band of this tribe is called Paiyutsi by the
others, and this is apparently the one that has
come into conflict with local authorities.
THE recent acquisition of a bust of John
Burroughs together with a marble pedestal
designed to harmonize with the bust was
made possible to the Museum through the
generosity of Mr. Henry Ford. This inter-
esting piece of sculpture was shown at the last
exhibit of the National Academy of Design.
The sculptor is Mr. C. 8. Pietro.
Tur annual meeting of the board of trus-
tees of the American Museum of Natural
History was held at the residence of President
Henry Fairfield Osborn, on Monday evening,
February first. The trustees were the guests
of President Osborn at dinner.
At the annual meeting of the board of
trustees the following trustees were reélected
in the class of 1919: George F. Baker, Henry
Fairfield Osborn, Joseph H. Choate, James
Douglas and George W. Wickersham. The
following officers were also reélected: presi-
dent, Henry Fairfield Osborn; first vice-
president, Cleveland H. Dodge; second vice-
president, J. P. Morgan; treasurer, Charles
Lanier; secretary, Adrian Iselin.
Tue department of education has arranged
to extend its courses of lectures for school
children by having certain of the lectures
which are given at the Museum repeated in
three local centers,— namely, the Washington
Irving High School, Public School 64 on the
lower East side and a school to be selected
in the Bronx. This plan will benefit many
pupils who cannot afford the necessary car-
fare to the Museum.
Ar the annual meeting of the board of
trustees the following elections of members
were made in recognition of generous contri-
butions and genuine interest in the growth
of the Museum: J. P. Morgan, associate
founder; Thomas DeWitt Cuyler, associate
benefactor; George F. Baker, patron.
FINANCED by a committee of friends of the
Museum interested in the paintings of Mr.
E. W. Deming, the work on the series of
MUSEUM NOTES
murals for the Plains Indian hall will begin
at once. The series will include eight panels.
Added to his many years spent in study of the
Indian and in recording Indian life, Mr.
Deming made new studies for the work last
summer, especially among the Blackfoot
Indians of Glacier National Park. [A por-
trait of Mr. Deming is shown on page 91.]
As a number of its Anthropological Series,
the Museum will soon publish a paper by Mr.
M. D. C. Crawford on prehistoric Peruvian
fabrics. Mr. Crawford’s familiarity with all
the materials, implements, machinery and
processes of present day weaving has enabled
him to analyze and describe the processes by
which these cloths were made.
The Museum’s collections from the ancient
graves of Peru contain the cotton and wool
in all stages from the raw state to the finished
yarns, and contain also looms with cloth in
process of manufacture. The fabrics be-
sides being some of the most beautiful ever
woven have always excited the wonder and
admiration of those who know anything about
weaving by their technical qualities. It is
difficult to understand how a primitive people,
with the simple tools at their command, could
have produced cloth technically better than
can be made by the wonderful looms of
to-day. In some of the fabrics the cotton
thread has three times as many turns to the
inch as the best cotton thread commonly
used in our mills, and the twist is remarkable
for its evenness. Some have a warp of forty-
two fine cotton threads to the inch, crossed
by two hundred and eighty-two ply woolen
threads to the inch. This weft had been
beaten so compactly that the instrument
used in mills to count the number of threads
to the inch is useless, and the cloth has to be
fastened down firmly and the threads drawn
out, one at a time, with a hooked needle point,
under a magnifying glass, the counting of an
inch taking three and a half hours.
Some twelve hundred specimens of arche-
ological and ethnological material from vari-
ous parts of the world have been deposited
by the Museum at Barnard College, Columbia
University, to be used as a study collection by
its students of anthropology.
ATTENTION may be called to the fur-seal
group just opened to the public in the North
American mammal hall, adjoining the re-
143
cently constructed beaver group. The back-
ground, which is remarkable for its illusion
of distance, was painted by Mr. Albert
Operti. It shows a part of Kitovi rookery
at the Pribilof Islands.
From recent cable advices we learn that
James Chapin with about one-fourth of the
collections of the Congo expedition left
Boma on the western coast of Africa January
31. He is expected to arrive in New York
the latter part of March.
THE exhibits in the Jesup North Pacific
Indian hall are being rearranged and the cases
repainted to produce a more harmonious
color scheme.
THE opening lecture of the fifth series of
the Museum’s “Science Stories’? for the
children of members was given on Saturday
morning, February 20, by Admiral Robert E.
Peary. His subject, “Children of Ice and
Snow,” proved of great charm and he gra-
ciously repeated the lecture and showed the
Arctic pictures a second time, to the overflow
audience of children who waited.
Mrs. WiuuraM H. Buiss of New York has
enriched the Museum’s gem collection with a
very beautiful .blue aquamarine, weighing
144.51 carats. It is a Brazilian stone from
Minas Geraes, cut in an oblong brilliant, and
easily exceeds in color beauty and size any
of the aquamarines previously brought from
that locality.
Tue photograph reproduced in sepia
opposite page 102 of this JouRNAL, is a copy
of one of two new mural canvases by Mr.
Will S. Taylor. It represents Indians of the
Tlingit tribe engaged in a shamanistic cere-
mony for curing the sick, and was recently
put in place on the east side of the North
Pacific hall. Any reproduction of this pic-
ture not in color is unfortunate, since in the
color lies a considerable part of its power.
The scene is an interior with steps leading
down into a room like a pit. Weird figures
in dim light sway to the chanting of Voices
and the beat of a drum, while in the circle
of firelight, the shaman in ceremonial dress,
his hair adorned with clipped eagle down,
dances about the man to be cured. The
second new canvas represents Haida Indians
in a house-building ceremony. [A portrait
of Mr. Taylor is given on page 90.]
144 THE AMERICAN
THE spring members’ course of popular
lectures at the Museum was opened on the
evening of March 4 by Dr. Wilfred H.
Osgood in a presentation of the subject,
the “Fur Seals and Other Animals of the
Pribilof Islands.”
A THIRTY-PAGE pamphlet, the Report on
the Street Trees of New York City published
by the Tree Planting Association of New
York City in coédperation with the New
York State College of Forestry at Syracuse
University may be secured without cost at
the sales desk on the first floor of the Museum.
This report by Mr. H. R. Francis gives the
results of the survey of the trees of the sev-
eral boroughs of New York City made by
him during the summer of 1914, and offers
suggestions for an organized system of scien-
tific tree culture especially adapted to New
York City.
THERE has recently been installed in the
Darwin hall an exhibit of the Galapagos
finches of the genus Geospiza to illustrate
geographical variation as a result of isolation.
The Galapagos Islands, made classic through
the observations and researches of Darwin,
furnish many types of animal life which are
not found in other parts of the world, al-
though in most cases they bear resemblance
to the corresponding fauna of the mainland
of South America. Each island of the
archipelago is the home of a species or variety
not found elsewhere. While these forms are
often distinct from those of neighboring is-
lands, they differ widely from those of the
mainland. A map of the islands is shown in
the exhibit together with specimens of the
various species mounted in such a way as to
indicate their geographic distribution on the
archipelago. As the degree in which they
differ is doubtless correlated with the length
of time during which the islands have been
_ separated, a relief map of the archipelago
showing the deepening of the channel of the
surrounding waters is introduced to further
emphasize this correlation.
THE latest addition to the exhibits in the
hall of public health is a group showing the
enemies of the fly. The setting is a section
of a stable with its stable yard, a corn field
and orchard showing in the distance. The
most important enemies are shown in char-
acteristic activities. A hen is busily engaged
in picking up fly larve; a toad is waiting
under burdock leaves for a fly to appear;
MUSEUM JOURNAL
swallows are skimming over the yard, catch-
ing flies on the wing; wasps are abroad on a
similar quest; while in dusty corners of the
stable and on the broken window are waiting
spiders and centipedes, and waiting bats
hang suspended from the beams.
ANOTHER shipment of birdskins, including
seven hundred and four specimens collected
by Mr. W. B. Richardson in eastern Panama,
has been received by the Museum.
Mr. Frank M. Byrruy, who exhibited
before the faculty of the Museum in January
a long series of autochrome plates in stereop-
ticon views of unusual beauty, will give a
lecture to members of the Museum on the
evening of March 25.
Mr. H. E. AnrHony has recently been
appointed assistant in the department of
mammalogy.
Dr. Davin G. Steap, Commissioner of
Fisheries of New South Wales, recently
visited the Museum. He is returning to
Australia from an investigation of the fisher-
ies of England during the past few months,
and expects to visit the United States govern-
ment fish hatcheries at Woods Hole, Massa-
chusetts, and several other points before
sailing for home.
A GENERAL meeting of the New York Acad-
emy of Sciences and its Affiliated Societies is
to be held at the Museum Monday, March 22.
Professor Raymond Dodge of Columbia Uni-
versity will lecture on the ‘‘Incidence of the
Effect of Moderate Doses of Alcohol on the
Nervous System.”
TurouGcH the courtesy of Dr. Emilie
Snethlage the Museum is to receive from time
to time collections of birds and mammals from
the Museu Goeldi, Pard, Brazil. The first
shipment contains six hundred and four birds
and fifty mammals and includes several
species new to our collections, one of them the
wonderful opal-crowned manikin, Pipra opali-
zans, pronounced by Count von Berlepsch
to be the “ finest bird in the world”’.
Mr. Francis HarPer has been working
recently at the Museum, in the preparation of
a paper on fish material which he collected on
the expedition sent out in 1914 under the
Canadian Geological Survey to Great Slave
Lake.
The American Museum of Natural History
Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City
Open free to the public on every day in the year.
The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the
Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people.
It is dependent
upon private subscriptions and the fees from members for procuring needed additions to the
collections and for carrying on explorations in America and other parts of the world. The
membership fees are,
Acai aus Weim DELS S46. clone Gist cai siete oo $ 10
Sustaining Members (annually)........ 25
Neihes MEM Nens sca ..cechet oe sxecevete tee coe. ie acct 100
LAGLON Eigen ae Ewen ag. rae neice oT ae 500
PateOus: caecater Ceri ett te is $1,000
Associate Benefactors............... 10,000
Associate: *Founders: Soos0 tose <scne 25,000
Benclactorswea- sets. too helene 50,000
Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request to members and teachers by the
department of public education.
Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone
the department for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied. Lectures to
classes may also be arranged for.
of children.
In all cases the best results are obtained with small groups
The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working collection
of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and abroad.
The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays excepted —
from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.
The Technical Publications of the Museum comprise the Memoirs, Bulletin and
Anthropological Papers, the Memoirs and Bulletin edited by J. A. Allen, the Anthropological
Papers by Clark Wissler.
the institution.
These publications cover the field and laboratory researches of
The Popular Publications of the Museum comprise the JourNAL, edited by Mary
Cynthia Dickerson, the Handbooks, Leaflets and General Guide.
The following list gives
some of the popular publications; complete lists, of both technical and popular publications,
may be obtained from the Librarian.
POPULAR PUBLICATIONS
HANDBOOKS
Nortu American INDIANS OF THE PLAtns. By Clark
Wissler, Ph.D. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.
INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST. By Pliny Earle Goddard,
Ph.D. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.
ANIMALS OF THE Past. By Frederic A. Lucas, Sc.D.
Paper, 35 cenls.
ILLUSTRATED GUIDE LEAFLETS
GENERAL GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS.
issued December, 1914. Price, 25 cents.
Tue CoLiecrion oF MINERALS. By Louis P. Grata-
cap, A.M. Price, 5 cents.
NortH AMERICAN RUMINANTS.
Price, 10 cents.
Tue ANcieNT Basket MAKERS OF SOUTHEASTERN
Uran. By George H. Pepper. Price, 10 cents.
Primitive Art. Price, 15 cents.
Tue Brirps oF THE Vicinity oF New York City. By
Frank M. Chapman, Se.D. Price, 15 cents.
PeruviaN Mummies. By Charles W. Mead. Price,
10 cenls.
Tue METEORITES IN THE FOYER OF THE AMERICAN
Museum or Naruraut History. By Edmund Otis
Hovey, Ph.D. Price, 10 cents.
Tue Hasitrat Groups oF Norra AMERICAN Brrps.
By Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D. Price, 15 cents.
New edition
By J. A. Allen, Ph.D.
THe InpIANS OF MANHATTAN ISLAND AND VICINITY.
By Alanson Skinner. Jn preparation.
THe Strokes PAINTINGS REPRESENTING GREENLAND
Eskimo. Price, 5 cents.
Brier History oF ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.
10 cents.
Trees AND Forestry. By Mary Cynthia Dickerson,
B.S. A new edition in course of preparation.
Tue Protection oF River AND HARBOR WATERS FROM
Municrpat Wastes. By Charles-Edward Amory
Winslow, M.S. Price, 10 cents.
PLant Forms 1In Wax. By E. C. B. Fassett.
10 cents.
THe EvoLuTIon oF THE Horse.
Ph.D. Price, 20 cents.
Price,
Price,
By W. D. Matthew,
REPRINTS
Tue Grounp StotH Groupe. By W. D. Matthew,
Ph.D. Price, 5 cents.
MeEtHopDs AND RESULTS IN HERPETOLOGY.
Cynthia Dickerson, B.S. Price, 5 cents.
Tue WuHarr Pitre Groupe. By Roy W. Miner, A.B.
Price, 5 cents.
THe Sea Worm Grove.
Price, 10 cents.
Tue ANCESTRY OF THE EDENTATES.
thew, Ph.D. Price, 5 cents.
By Mary
By Roy W. Miner, A.B.
By W. D. Mat-
The extinct great auk purchased in London by Dr. Elliot and presented
to the Museum by Robert L. Stuart.
A specimen of this bird would sell
for six thousand dollars to-day
MAY WOODLANDS IN THE AMERICA‘
WILD BIRD GUESTS
The American Museum of Natural History
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
President
Henry FAIRFIELD OSBORN
First Vice-P-esident
CLEVELAND itt. DopGE
Treasurel
CHARLES LANIER
Second Vice-President
J. P. MoreGan
Secretary
ADRIAN ISELIN, JR.
JoHN Purroy Mircuent, Mayor or tHe City or New Yor«K
Witu1am A. PRENDERGAST, COMPTROLLER OF THE CiTy oF NEw YORK
Capot WARD, PRESIDENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
GeorGcE F. BAKER
FREDERICK F. BREWSTER
JoserpH H. CHOATE
R. Fuuiron Cuttine
Tuomas DeWitt CuyLEeR
JAMES DouGLAé:
Henry C. Frick
Mapison GRANT
Anson W. Harp
ArcHER M. HuntTINGTON
ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES
Wa.ter B. JAMES
Seta Low
OcpEN MILuLs
Percy R. PYNE
JoHuN B. TREVOR
FeLtrx M. Warsura
GrorcE W. WICKERSHAM
A. D. JUILLIARD
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS
D rector
Freper c A. Lucas
Assistant Treasurer
Tue Unitrep States Trust COMPANY
Assistant Secretary
Gerorce H, SHERWOOD
oF New YorxkE
SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Freperic A. Lucas, Se.D., Director
Geology and Invertebrate Paleontology
Epmunp Oris Hovey, Ph.D., Curator
Cuester A. Reeps, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Mineralogy
L. P. Graracap, A.M., Curator
Georae F. Kunz, Ph.D., Honorary Curator Gems
Woods and Forestry
Mary Cyntruia Dickerson, B.S., Curator
Invertebrate Zodlogy
Henry E. Crampton, Ph.D., Curator
Roy W. Miner, A.B., Asst. Curator
Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
L. P. Gratacap, A.M., Curator Mollusca
A. J. Murcuuer, Assistant
Frank E. Watson, B.S., Assistant
W. M. WsaeeEteER, Ph.D., Hon. Curator Social
Insects
A. L. TREADWELL, Ph.D., Hon. Curator Annulata
CuaRugEs W. Lena, B.S., Hon. Curator Coleoptera
Ichthyology and Herpetology
Basurorp Dean, Ph.D., Curator Emeritus
Lovis Hussaxor, Ph.D., Curator Ichthyology
Joun T. Nicuous, A.B., Asst. Curator Recent
Fishes
Mary Cynruia Dickerson, B.S., Assoc. Curator
Herpetology
Mammalogy and Ornithology
J. A. Auten, Ph.D., Curator
Frank M. Cuapman, Sc.D., Curator Ornithology
Roy C. Anprews, A.M., Asst. Curator Mam-
malogy
W. DeW. Miter, Asst. Curator Ornithology
H. E. Anruony, Assistant Mammalogy
Vertebrate Paleontology
Henry Farrri£E_p Ossorn, LL.D., D.Sc., Curator
Emeritus
W. D. Martruew, Ph.D., Curator
Water GranaeER, Assoc. Curator [Mammals]
Barnum Brown, A.B., Assoc. Curator [Reptiles]
Wituram K. Grecory, Ph.D., Assoc. in Palzon-
tology
Anthropology
CuiarkK WissteR, Ph.D., Curator
Puiny E. Gopparp, Ph.D., Curator Ethnology
Rosert H. Lowe, Ph.D., Assoc. Curator
HeEerRBeERT J. SPINDEN, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Nets C. Netson, M.L., Asst. Curator
CuarLes W. Mean, Asst. Curator
ALANSON SKINNER, Asst. Curator
Haruan I. Smitu, Hon. Curator Archzeology
Anatomy and Physiology
Rautpew W. Tower, Ph.D., Curator
Public Health
CuHARLES-Epwarp A. WinsLow, M.S., Curator
IsraEL J. Kuiauer, B.S., Assistant
Public Education
GrorcE H. SHERwoop, A.M., Curator
G. Crypr Fisuer, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Ann E. Tuomas, Ph.B., Assistant
Books and Publications
Rautpeu W. Tower, Ph.D., Curator
Ipa RicHAaRDsoNn Hoop, A.B., Asst. Librarian
Tue American Museum Journac
VoLUuME XV APRIL, 1915 NuMBER 4
CONTENTS
Cover, Voices from the Pond at the Time of Apple Blossoms
Design from photograph of the Toad Group in the American Museum
Portraits of John Burroughs, Naturalist and Author.......:..........6..... 146
John Burroughs and Henry Ford
John Burroughs with his grandchildren at Riverby
At Woodchuck Lodge
A Naturalist on the Bepscron River
Posing for the sculptor, C. 8. Pietro
Frontispiece, Marble Bust of John Burroughs by C. 8S. Pietro................. 150
Presented to the American Museum by Mr. Henry Ford
Fniings the: African’ Bultaloss si. 85 as ee Ge Be Cart E. Axetry 151
One of the most dangerous big-game animals in British East Africa — A series obtained
representing development from babyhood to old age
The “Toad Group” in the American Museum...... Mary Cyntuta Dickerson 163
The composite construction and interest of a group recently constructed, the fourth of the
reptile and amphibian series under the supervision of M. C. Dickerson
With a four-page insert in sepia from photographs of the Toad Group
Aquarelles of our Common Woodlands................. WarrEN H. Miter 167
Tilustrations from photographs of the Toad Group by Mr. Julius Kirschner, Museum
bird Baths andsbrinkine Pools... oi. e.g eae: ERNEST HAROLD Baynes 176
Illustrations from photographs by the Author
Motion Picture Records of Indians..................... Puiny E. Gopparp 185
Films that show the industries of the Apache Indians, for immediate comparative study of
tribes and historical record for the future
August Weismann, Zodlogist: an Appreciation........... Frank R. Linu 189
Morgan’s “Heredity and Sex”; a Review................. E. G. Conkiin 194
Note on the Crocker Land Expedition Ship............ GEORGE H. SHERWooD 195
The *‘George B. Cluett’’ has been chartered to proceed northward to Etah July 1, to bring
back to New York the members of the expedition who went north in 1913 on the ‘' Diana’”’
SEM ICES es eats Seb, cisco akties as iret SO a ate A Bee 196
Mary Cyntuta Dickerson, Editor
Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History, at the
Cosmos Press, Cambridge, Mass. Terms: one dollar and a half per year, twenty cents per copy.
Entered as second-class matter January 12, 1907, at the Post-Office at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress,
July 16, 1894.
Subscriptions should be addressed to the American Musrum JOURNAL, 77th St. and
Central Park West, New York City.
The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum.
wipe
JOHN BURROUGHS AND HENRY FORD
{In the first automobile designed and built b
y Mr. Ford.] The marble bust of
Burroughs, recently shown at the exhibit by the National Academy of Design, has been:
presented to the Museum by Mr. Ford
A
]
ee 8 atte
b cans
gl
oe eee #3
Photos by A. H. Pratt
John Burroughs and his grandchildren by the well at Riverby. John Burroughs II has just been
tossed to his shoulder
John Burroughs and the woodchucks at Woodchuck Lodge. The woodchuck is the only form
of wild life on which Mr. Burroughs tries his skill with the rifle
147
Photo by A. H. Pratt
A NATURALIST AT HOME
John Burroughs looking up the Grand Gorge of the upper Pepacton, a stream closely associated
with his boyhood and youth
148
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JOHN BURROUGHS, NATURALIST
This bust of Burroughs by the sculptor C. S. Pietro together with a pedestal in marble to harmonize
with the bust, has recently been presented to the Museum by Mr. Henry Ford
—‘‘ Note on John Burroughs,”’ page 196
THe American Museum Journal
VoLUME XV
APRIL, 1915
NUMBER 4
HUNTING THE AFRICAN BUFFALO’
ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS OF BIG-GAME ANIMALS IN BRITISH
EAST AFRICA
By Carl E. Akeley
Illustrations from photographs by the Author
HEN we first went to British
East Africa in 1905, on inter-
viewing the government offi-
clals at Mombasa, we learned that our
game license would not include buffalo.
Buffalo were thought to be nearly ex-
terminated as a result of the rinderpest
of the early nineties. There were known
to be a few herds however, and finally
in view of the fact that the buffalo
killed were to be used for scientific pur-
poses, the officials consented to let us
have five on payment of a license fee of
five pounds each. The
allowed us to hunt at the edge of the
reserve at Kijabi where a small herd
lived in the bush and forest of the Rift
We were
arrangement
Valley and the escarpment.
warned that it was very dangerous
hunting them there because of the rather
dense cover; that they were pugnacious
and generally disagreeable creatures to
hunt under such conditions.
We arrived at Kijabi and the first
afternoon out one of our party came up
with a herd and killed a cow — the cow
of the buffalo group of Chicago. This
was a good beginning and we fully
1 This story gives some idea of the danger and
the hard work connected with shooting six African
buffalo for the Field Museum, Chicago, in 1905.
These specimens now form a group, recently
mounted by Mr. Akeley in the elephant studio
at the American Museum and shipped to Chicago
for permanent installation there— THe Eprror.
expected to have little difficulty in
getting the complete series. Neverthe-
less at the end of four weeks, having been
on their trails nearly every day without
securing another specimen, we gave up
in despair.
These particular buffalo had been
much hunted and had become wary.
More than once while carefully tracking
a single animal through the bush, we
were startled by the sudden stampede
of our quarry. The animal having de-
cided to rest perhaps, had turned back
to one side of the trail where he had
heard us or got our wind. More fre-
quently no doubt, the explanation lay in
the eddying currents of air caused by the
high and forested escarpment overhang-
ing the low hot valley.
Later on during a month of collecting
on the Mau Plateau at an altitude of
from 7000 to 8000 feet, we spent some
time hunting buffalo in the forests of
that region but with no better success.
We found only a couple of small herds
and single animals, always in dense bush
or forest.
Some six months later, when we had
met with no further success on the
plateau, we gained permission from the
government to go across the Tana River
into Mount Kenya Province, which up
to that time had been a closed district.
We were in camp at Nairobi preparing
151
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HUNTING THE AFRICAN. BUFFALO
for the journey when one morning a
company of the King’s African Rifles
passed on the Fort Hall road, and we
soon learned that trouble had broken
out among the natives across the Tana
and as a result our trip was postponed.
Some eight weeks later after an ele-
phant hunt on the Abadare Mountains,
we arrived at Fort Hall just as the Gover-
nor, Sir James Hayes-Saddler, with his
suite was about to go across Mount
Kenya Province for the purpose of locat-
ing the site of the new “Boma” in the
newly pacified region. Not only was our
permit to hunt in the district renewed
but we were invited to accompany the
official party as far as our routes paral-
leled. It had been the Governor’s in-
tention to go on a buffalo hunt, when
the official work was finished, and it was
suggested that we go elephant-hunting
on Mount Kenya until the Governor had
finished his shooting. To hunt elephant
on Mount Kenya was an unexpected
privilege; nothing could have pleased us
more.
After six weeks we returned from the
elephant hunt to the Tana River where
we made a base camp, stored the ele-
phant and other skins and proceeded
two marches about twenty-five miles
down the river. Here we established
our “buffalo camp.” Buffalo sign was
abundant but for many days we came
up with none except old outcast bulls,
usually two or three together, no one
of which seemed desirable specimens.
We frequently saw indications of a herd
but it was only after many days that we
finally found them, and then just at the
close of a day so that we were not able
to pick out the individuals we wanted.
Back to camp we went, ten miles in the
dark, through a region that was literally
rhino-infested, with the hope that on the
following day we could make good with
the buffalo. It turned out that we spent
153
a week looking for that herd and never
again found it.
One morning however, Cunningham
having gone out with some boys to shoot
meat for camp, came upon three old
buffalo. He sent a runner back to
camp with the news and Mrs. Akeley
and I started out to join him. Halfway
from camp we were obliged to make a
wide detour to avoid an old rhino and
calf, but soon caught up with Cunning-
ham. He reported however, that the
buffalo had passed on into some dense
bush. We started to follow, but sud-
denly came on to two rhinos. We
quickly turned to the leeward not to
disturb them by giving them our wind,
thereby possibly bringing on a general
stampede of the game in the neighbor-
hood. This turn brought us to the wind-
ward of the old cow and calf that we had
first avoided, with the result that she
came charging up, followed by the calf
close at her heels, snorting like a loco-
motive. Cunningham helped Mrs. Ake-
ley up a convenient tree. He stood at
the base of the tree and I at the foot of
another where we poised with our guns
ready, watching the old cow go tearing
past within twenty feet of us. But the
rhino had lost her scent and it was a
typical “rhino charge” which means
merely a general mad rush up and down
in a stupid effort — perhaps to get away
from the supposed danger.
We continued on the buffalo trail, but
the stampede of the rhino had resulted
in alarming the buffalo so that instead
of finding them nearby, we were forced
to follow them for an hour or more before
again coming in sight of them; and again
twice more they were stampeded by
rhinos that happened to get in our path.
At last the buffalo evidently became
tired of being chased from place to place,
and came to rest on a sloping hillside
which we could approach only by crawl-
154
ing on our hands and knees in the grass
for a considerable distance. In this
manceuvering it happened that Mrs.
Akeley was able to stalk the best bull,
and a few minutes later he had been
finished off and we were busy photo-
graphing, measuring and preparing the
skin. Twice during the operation of
skinning we had to send our boys to
chase off curious rhinos who acted as
though they wanted to come in and
break up the party. This bull became
the big bull of the Chicago group.
Some twenty-five miles to the north-
west from the Tana, across the plain
on the Theba River, is a marsh, the
tinga-tinga of the natives, where a herd
of nearly a hundred buffalo was known
to live, but the Provincial Commissioner
had definitely said that we were not to
We decided finally to ask
for the privilege, which was granted but
shoot these.
with a warning in the form of an explana-
tion, that he had told us not to shoot
there because of the danger involved.
We found the tinga-tinga a reed marsh
about one by two miles in extent with, at
that time, a foot or two of water in the
buffalo trails that crisscross in all direc-
tions. On arrival, while making camp at
one end of the marsh just at dusk, we
saw the herd come out on dry land a half-
mile away — but they returned to cover
In fact
during nearly two weeks that we spent
before we could approach them.
there, we saw them come outside the
swamp only twice, each time to return
immediately.
We made several attempts to approach
them in the marsh but found that while
it was quite possible to get up to them,
it was out of the question to choose our
specimens. Also it would have been
impossible to beat a retreat in case of a
charge or stampede, so we adopted a
campaign of watchful waiting. From
the camp at daybreak we would scan the
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
marsh for the snowy cow herons that
were always with the buffalo during the
daytime. These would fly about above
the reeds from one part of the herd to
another and at times where the reeds
were low they could be seen riding along
perched on the backs of the animals.
Having thus located the herd and de-
termined the general direction of its
movements, we would go to a point at
the edge of the marsh where it seemed
likely that the animals would come out,
or at least come near enough to be visi-
ble in the shorter reeds. It was in this
way that we secured the specimen that
makes the young bull of the group — and
the tinga-linga
resulted in securing no other specimen.
two weeks spent at
On this one occasion the buffalo accom-
panied by the white herons, had come
to within about a hundred yards of our
position on the shores of the swamp.
They were in reeds that practically con-
cealed them, but the young buffalo in
question in the act of throwing up his
head to dislodge a bird that had irritated
him, disclosed a pair of horns that indi-
cated a young bull of the type I wanted.
At the same time a heron standing on his
withers gave me the clue to his position
and aiming some two feet below the bird,
I succeeded in killing the bull with a
heart shot.
Feeling that it was practically impos-
sible to choose and collect the desired
series from this herd, we determined to
go back to the bush and plains between
the Theba and Tana rivers in an effort
to locate a herd that we had seen earlier
on the Tana. Knowing that this herd
must go daily to water either at the Tana
or the Theba, which bounded the two
sides of the triangular territory through
which we were working, we decided to go
down the Theba to its Junction with the
Tana, then up the Tana to our original
buffalo camp. From the swamp down
Part of the expedition crossing the Tana River by the primitive government ferry (1906). At
this point near Fort Hall, the government has since erected a pine bridge
Mr. Akeley established his main ‘‘buffalo camp’? on the Tana River and it was near this camp
that the big bull of the Chicago group was shot by Mrs. Akeley. During a second march up the Tana
River some months later, the herd of five hundred buffalo was encountered [see photograph on page 159]
The King’s African Rifles leaving Nairobi for a scene of trouble in Kenya Province
155
Family and home of the Wandorobo guide of the Mau Plateau
the Theba to its junction with the Tana
occupied three days during which time
On the
second march up the Tana, as I was
we saw no fresh sign of buffalo.
traveling ahead of the safari at about
midday, looking out through an opening
in a strip of thorn bush that bordered
the river, I saw in the distance a great
black mass on the open plain which on
further the field
156
investigation with
glasses I was reasonably certain was a
herd of buffalo. Sending a note back
to Cunningham, who was in charge of
the safari, suggesting that he make
‘amp at a hill on the banks of the Tana
some two miles ahead of my position and
await me there, I started off over the
plain with my two gun-boys. Coming
up out of a dry stream-bed that I had
used to conceal my approach to the herd
HUNTING THE AFRICAN BUFFALO
I came on to a large herd of eland, and
my first fear was that I had mistaken
eland for buffalo.
Going farther on the high land how-
ever, we saw a herd of about five hundred
buffalo lying up in a few scattered thorn
trees, some four or five hundred yards
away. At first it seemed an almost
impossible situation. There was prac-
tically no cover and no means of escape
in case the herd detected us and saw
fit to charge and at that time my respect
for the buffalo led me to be extremely
cautious. We worked around the herd
trying to find some place where a safe
approach might be made. Finally see-
ing a little band of a dozen buffalo off
at one side on the bank of a ravine which
offered splendid protection, we stalked
157
them but unfortunately not one in the
band was desirable as a_ specimen.
Since this was so, I tried them out, giving
them my wind, then going up where they
could see me better. I found that they
were quite indifferent either to the scent
or the sight of man. They finally moved
off quietly without alarm. I then knew
that this herd had had no experience of
men or hunters, and that there was
perhaps less to fear from them than from
the traditional buffalo of the sportsman.
So going back to the main herd, I crept
up boldly to within a hundred yards of
them. They saw me, faced about,
closely inspecting me, but with no sign of
alarm. It was approaching dusk and in
this great black mass it was difficult to
pick out a good pair of horns except with
Rhinos in buffalo country.
as many as twenty or thirty were encountered in a single day
Rhinos may be greatly in the way in buffalo-hunting.
Sometimes
158
the aid of the glasses. I carefully lo-
cated a fine bull and then shot as I sup-
posed at the one I had located. As I
fired, the animals bolted, first away, then
back toward me. They wheeled, ran
halfway between the dead animal and
One of our Wandorobo guides while hunting buffalo on
the Mau plateau.
raw hide wound spirally.
defense
myself and passing on some hundred
yards to the right, wheeled about again
and stood watching me, the bulls in the
front lined up like soldiers, the calves
and cows in the background. On com-
The bow is protected by a sheath of
This with a quiver of poisoned
arrows, and a short sword are his weapons of offense and
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
ing up to the dead animal, I found much
to my regret that I had shot a cow and
not the bull I had picked out through
the glasses.
I returned to camp feeling that now at
last from this herd living apparently
in the open, we should have rel-
atively little difficulty in com-
pleting our series of specimens.
On the following morning much
to our disappointment, our first
climpse of the herd was just as
it disappeared in the thorn bush
along the banks of the river.
We put in nearly a week of hard
work to complete the series.
During those seven days of
continual hunting, that herd
which had been indifferent and
unsuspecting at the beginning
became cautious, vigilant and
aggressive. For instance, on one
occasion near the close of the
week, after having spent the day
trying to locate the herd, I sud-
denly came face to face with
them just at the edge of the bush
at night on my way back to
camp. They were tearing along
at a good pace, apparently hav-
ing been alarmed. I stepped to
one side and crouched in the low
grass while they passed me at
twenty-five or thirty yards in a
cloud of dust. Even had I been
able to pick out desirable speci-
mens at this time I should have
been afraid to shoot for fear of
getting into difficulties when
they had located my position. I
turned and followed them rap-
idly as they sped away over the
hard ground until the noise of their
stampede suddenly stopped. I then de-
cided that it was best to get to some
point of vantage and await further de-
velopments. I climbed an acacia tree
Photograph made in 1910, not far from the place on the Tana River where I found the herd of
five hundred, four years earlier.
that enabled me to look over the top of
the bush. About fifty yards ahead I
could see some fifty buffalo lined up in a
little open patch looking back on their
trail. As I was perched in the tree en-
deavoring to pick out a desirable animal,
I suddenly discovered a lone old bull
buffalo coming from the bush almost
directly underneath me, sniffing and
snuffng this way and _ that.
slowly, very cautiously he passed around
the tree, then back to the waiting herd,
when they all resumed their stampede
and made good their escape for the day.
One morning I came in sight of the
herd just as it was entering the thorn
bush and followed hurriedly on the trail,
until just at the edge of the jungle I hap-
pened to catch sight of the two black
hoofs of an old cow behind the low-
hanging foliage. I stopped, expecting a
charge. After a few moments I backed
slowly away until I reached a tree where
I stopped to wait developments. Stoop-
ing down I could see the buffalo’s nose
and black beady eyes as she stood mo-
tionless. The rest of the herd had gone
on out of hearing and I think she was
Very
Probably a part of the original herd that had been split off
quite alone in her proposed attack.
After a few moments, apparently realiz-
ing that her plan had failed, she turned
about and followed the herd, moving
very quietly at first, then breaking into
a gallop.
On the following day we came up again
with the herd toward evening in the same
region. As we first saw them they were
too far away for us to choose and shoot
with certainty. We managed to crawl
to a fair-sized tree midway between us
and the herd, and from the deep branches
picked out the young herd bull of the
group. When we had shot and he had
disappeared into the bush, a calf accom-
panied by its mother gave us a fleeting
glimpse of itself, with the result that we
added the calf to our series.
The herd disappeared into the bush
and after a few minutes we descended
from our perch and inspected the calf,
then started off in the direction the
wounded bull had taken, and found him
lying dead just a few yards away.
This completed the series much to our
great joy, for by this time we were thor-
oughly tired of buffalo-hunting. It had
159
160
been a long hard hunt and our safari as
well as ourselves were considerably the
worse for wear. To shoot a half-dozen
buffalo is a very simple matter and ought
to be accomplished almost any day in
British East Africa or Uganda, but to
select a series of a half-dozen that will
have the greatest possible scientific
value by illustrating the development
from babyhood to old age is quite a
different matter. To the average sports-
The young bull of the African buffalo group, with one of Mr. Akeley’s gun-boys. The photo-
graph shows the character of the marsh vegetation
man the one would be sport, the other
hard labor.
These buffalo of the Tana country,
that we found on the plains and in the
bush, apparently rarely or never go into
the swamps, a fact not only confirmed
by observation but also indicated by the
condition of the hoofs. These are horny,
round and smooth as a result of traveling
on the hard and more or less stony
a NN
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
ground of the region. Whereas the
tinga-tinga buffalo have lived in the
swamp for years and spend practically
no time on hard ground, hence the hoofs
are long, sharp and unworn as a result
of walking always in the soft mud and
water. All this in spite of the fact that
these two herds may actually come in
contact at the edge of the swamp. Other
herds living in forest country, which
come out into the grasslands to feed at
a
et i
.
night, always go back into the forest at
daybreak.
In Uganda where buffalo are recog-
nized as a menace to life and are of no
particular value except for food, they
are officially treated as vermin and one
may shoot as many as he will. Here
the herds have increased to an enormous
extent and because of the dense jungles
and general inaccessibility of the coun-
try, it is rather difficult to hunt
them. While elephant-hunting
in Uganda we found the buffalo
a decided nuisance, frequently
coming on to them unexpectedly
while hot on an elephant trail,
sometimes having difficulty in
getting rid of them, not wishing
to shoot or stampede them be-
cause of the danger of frighten-
ing away the elephants, to say
nothing of the constant menace
of running into a truculent old
bull at very close quarters in
The buffalo act-
ually mingle with the elephants,
each quite indifferent to the
dense jungle.
other, excepting that on one
found elephant
calves charging into a herd of
buffalo, evidently only in play.
occasion we
They chased about squealing
and stampeding the buffalo, who
kept at a safe distance but did
not actually take alarm. Occa-
sionally an old cow whose calf
was being hard-pressed by the
young elephants would turn, apparently
with the intention of having it out, but
would always bolt before the elephant
could actually reach her. In spite of
the fact that the record head, fifty-four
inches in spread, was shot by Mr.
Knowles in Uganda, from our general
observation, the heads in Uganda run
smaller than those of British East Africa
while the animals are perhaps heavier.
While on our buffalo-hunting we have
never had any actually serious encount-
ers, we fully appreciate that the buffalo
deserves his reputation as one of the
Kikuyu porter with buffalo skull
most dangerous of big-game animals.
His eyesight is good, he has keen scent
While
the lion is usually satisfied with giving his
and is vigilant and vindictive.
victim a knock-out blow or bite, the buf-
falo when once on the trail of man will
not only persist in his efforts to find him
but when he has once come up with him,
will not leave while there is a vestige of
In some
ases he will not leave while there is a
life remaining in the victim.
fragment of the man remaining large
enough to form a target for a buffalo’s
stamping hoofs.
161
A QUIET CORNER
Three Fowler’s toads in the new ‘Toad Group’’ at the American
Museum of Natural History
162
THE “TOAD GROUP” IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM
A WORD AS TO ITS COMPOSITE CONSTRUCTION AND INTEREST
Group designed and construction directed by M. C. Dickerson; panoramic canvas by Hobart
Nichols; detailed wax and color technique on the animals of the group by Frederick H. Stoll; group
assembled by Ernest W. Smith and Frederick H. Stoll
By Mary Cynthia Dickerson
HE new group, fourth in the
reptile and amphibian series,
has been made with three im-
portant objects in view: first that it
should set forth various facts in the
ecology and general biology of amphibia;
second that it should be more easily
read than a book by those who wish to
learn these facts; and third that it
should be as beautiful as is the original
spot lying under the sunshine of May
in Rehoboth Township, Massachusetts.
There should not be left out however
even momentarily, afourth aim which has
controlled the work from first to last.
This is that the group, while made up
of the most delicate and fragile of con-
stituent parts, should be permanent in
construction, capable of lasting un-
changed for decades, in fact indefinitely,
if not destroyed by fire or earthquake.
In its scientific scope the group aims
to set forth certain simple facts many of
which are very well known to zo6logists
and laymen alike who wander much
afield. These include such items as the
difference in appearance and in time of
breeding (in southern New England) of
nine species of common amphibians,!
1 The group includes specimens of two kinds of
tree frogs, the tiny ‘‘spring peeper’’ (Hyla picker-
ingii) whose voice in chorus carries over the
countryside a half mile or more in early spring,
and the common so-called ‘‘tree toad’’ and
“weather prophet”’ (Hyla versicolor); two species
of toads, the American (Bufo americanus), breed-
ing in the middle of April, and the smaller, grayer,
more agile Fowler’s toad (Bufo fowleri) coming
to the pond from its hibernation the first week of
May; three frogs, the green frog (Rana clamitans)
and the identification for the ponds of
northeastern North America of the
amphibian eggs commonly seen. These
latter include the eggs of frogs, repre-
sented in the group by the freshly laid
eggs of the green frog and hatching eggs
of the pickerel frog; those of sala-
manders, in the whole range of which
there is more variation than among
frogs, but among which the eggs com-
monly found are those shown in the
group, the large gelatinous masses of
the spotted salamander; and _ lastly
those typical of toads, represented by
eggs of Fowler’s toad in the group, the
long gelatinous strings in which the eggs
are imbedded at intervals. The eggs
in the group are accurate reproductions
in glass treated with color and wax spray,
and are the first attempt by museums to
represent them as far as known.
Some of the unusual facts set forth,
the results of original investigation in the
field, concern such points as the dis-
tinction between the two species of toads
and difference in their adaptation to low
temperature as shown in their different
often confused with the larger bullfrog (Rana
catesbiana) (See bullfrog group), the spotted
pickerel frog (Rana palustris) confused with the
leopard frog (Rana pipiens) (See casts in synoptic
case), and the little brown wood frog (Rana
sylvatica) inured to the same low temperatures as
are the amblystoma of the region and the peeper,
thus appearing in March from its winter sleep in
the mud; and finally two salamanders, the big
black and yellow spotted salamander (A mblys-
toma punctatum) which is more often seen in
damp places on land than in water, and the com-
mon small brown newt never seen out of water
after it is one year old.
163
! the swimming of the
breeding times,
two-thirds grown tadpoles of the wood
frog in definite schools as do fishes and
the possible presence in the ooze at the
bottom of the pond of a “nest” of adult
amblystomas usually sought for on land
only.
In working out the educational value
there was a considerable problem. It
was necessary to arrange the some one
hundred animals of the group, besides
the eggs and tadpoles, in a space a few
feet square, with clearness for study.
The final arrangement evolved, aims to
make a quick appeal to the eye as to a
distinct separation of different species,
relationship of different stages of devel-
opment of a given species, truthful
position of all in the environment, and
this with no sacrifice of scientific ac-
curacy or of the actual probabilities and
without crowding or arranging in synop-
tic form which would have killed the
artistic effect.
Artistic effect in reptile and amphibian
groups seems of particular importance,
a thing to be striven for, for here we
must overcome a large measure of more
1The plan of construction of the group in-
cludes a small pool of water at the left separate
from the main pond and intended exclusively for
the American toad with its tadpoles (while the
specimens of Fowler’s toad with freshly laid eggs
are in the large pond at the right), so that there
can be no possible confusion in the comparison of
the two.
or less active dislike for the subject.
The completed group therefore has been
made an illustration of the fact, but
recently used in museum installation
although now recognized as fundamental
in all work of an educational character,
that beauty is not incompatible with
On the
it may strengthen the
scientific value in an exhibit.
other hand,
appeal of science.
The following quotation from a letter
William
Henry Fox, director of the Museum of
recently received from Mr.
the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and
the
value in natural history exhibits:
Sciences, touches matter of art
My recent visit to the American Museum
impressed me greatly with the artistic beauty
of the reptile and amphibian groups. There
is no reason why artistic effect as well as
scientific truth should not always be taught
in this way. I hold that without this essen-
tial, groups are of little educational value in
a popular museum. The uninformed public
must first be “‘taken into camp”’ as it were,
with a visual impression which gives pleasure.
I recognized at once in these groups conscious
employment of the elements that the painter
uses in making a picture on a flat canvas,
such as composition, color harmony, the
chromatic gamut and aérial perspective.
He employs one medium; here is used another
means to the common end — namely, the
interpretation of natural phenomena. One
of the secrets of the effect is that with all the
animal and plant species, introduced with
fidelity to natural effect and ecological order,
164
nothing has been permitted to obtrude into
the picture. As in nature the infinitely
varied manifestations of inanimate life and
the creatures that abound in the water, on
land and in the air are only details in the
one universal conception of beauty.
From the artistic standpoint the con-
struction of the toad group, it must be
admitted, was also a problem: to create
with artificial (wood
plaster, wax, glass, papier-maché, cellu-
materials and
loid and oil paints) an illusion so per-
fect that the observer will be actually
deceived as to the realness of the objects;
then to arrange these objects in a
There had to be
careful handling of the colors,
pleasing composition.
and
especially of the lights, and the concrete
foreground had to be blended with the
panoramic painted background with
proper perspective, in order to give
illusion as to the naturalness of the
scene as a whole.
The main difficulty lay in maintain-
ing the balance, allowing nothing to take
on ultra importance scientifically or
pictorially, while still making the atti-
tude or action of each of the animals the
resultant of the demand of the location
in the group (with consequent relations
to neighboring animals) and the known
habits of the species. It was at this
point in the construction that decision
was made to leave out or to subordinate
in position various large enemies of
The skunk for in-
stance eats toads, first rolling them
forcibly under his paws until the poison
has been exuded from the skin glands.
toads and frogs.
The muskrat varies his menu in spring
by the addition of an occasional frog or
toad, and hawks and owls as well as
herons and even crows are known to
include amphibia in their diet. I have
seen a chipmunk hastening to his bur-
row with a woodfrog in his mouth and
the red squirrel is very fond of meat in
the spring after his winter on nuts and
seeds. The only “enemies”’ of any size
which found their way finally into the
group are a red squirrel watching from
the stone wall back of the apple tree,
a water snake in the act of capturing a
Fowler’s toad but made inconspicuous by
a projecting moss-covered root in the
right front of the group, and a spotted
turtle deep in the water at the rear and
evidently the cause of the lively scurry-
ing of the school of pollywogs.
It will thus be realized that in pre-
serving the balance in the scientific,
educational and art values of the group,
the position of any animal is truly “stra-
tegic,” and that its placing was not a
simple matter and never a chance mat-
ter, but was determined by necessity in
the fulfillment of the various demands.
A piece of original, complex, construc-
165.
166
tive work is always a delight in the doing
and the designer will always hope that
what has been put into it will be taken
out by one or another who stands before
it. To create the new group has come
as an opportunity to give back in a small
measure here in the heart of New York
City what was received some years ago
from an intimate acquaintance with the
New England “wilderness.” Naturally
no mere words can carry the news of the
woods at any season with the vividness
of the reality, even though that reality
be set in a still picture. Words are
weak indeed also to transmit the magne-
tic attraction nature exerts over man.
They fail utterly to convey what will
produce the personal reaction of feeling
such as is wrought into one who lives
out-of-doors and sees continually the
most commonplace scene take on mean-
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
ing and beauty — perhaps under the
influence of the mist of dawn, the quiet-
ness of dusk or the blackness of storm,
perhaps when it is lashed by wind and
rain, or afterward transfigured in a
radiancy of sunshine.
It is in this last mood that the recent
group has been fashioned and in May,
the season of new life, with the thought
that perhaps this concrete picture would
be able to do what words accomplish
but inadequately. That in it there
would be seen with unusual vividness
and attractiveness the natural history
facts involved, and that perhaps, in
addition, there would be felt—by a
child here, a lover of beauty there, the
poet everywhere — some part of nature’s
subtle personal invitation and some
reflection of the spiritual response which
the original scene might invoke.
Redstart and parula warblers.— May is the month of warblers and the gay-foliaged branches are
filled with them, yet they are difficult to locate.
(From the Toad Group)
ROUP”
“TOADSG
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93
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Birds are just at the moment of
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THE “TOAD GROUP
A New England w
American Museum.
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THE TIME OF MAY
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A COVE WHERE GREEN FROGS LIVE
Detail from the Toad Group in the American Museum of Natural History
AQUARELLES OF OUR COMMON WOODLANDS*
By Warren H. Miller
Editor of Field and Stream
UR Museum has many wonder-
lands of American wild life
upon which the hungry city
dweller may feast his eyes, but none more
beautiful than the collection of scenic
cases presenting the amphibian life of the
ponds and brooks of our familiar wood-
lands. It is a veritable fairyland that
one enters here, a fairyland in more ways
than one, for it is the gateway back to
one’s own forgotten youth, a fairyland
having the power to touch the mystic
chords of memory and reawaken the
keen pleasures that one experienced,
with the tenfold sensitiveness of youth,
when going into the woods in the spring-
time to collect wild flowers, to renew
acquaintances with the birds, and to
watch the still pools for signs of the
activities of the small creatures which
give the touch of life to such places.
I presume that these cases are given
such prosaic names as the “toad group,”’
and the “bullfrog group,” but my soul
will have none of it. To me the scene
presenting the life of our common toads,
is May; fresh, bounding May, the
eternal New Year of the wilderness:
when the new leaves have just unfolded,
soft and feathery as fine plumes, the
forest floor is carpeted with anemones,
dog-tooth violets and jack-in-the-pul-
pits; and every dell has its wild bird
finding melodious breath over the nod-
ding sprays of Solomon’s-seal. When I
look upon that scenic picture of May in
the woods I hardly see the wild life at all,
at first. Isee, dimly, a Boy of Ten, with
1 Photographs for this article and the preceding
as well as for the four-page sepia insert, made
from the Toad Group by Mr. Julius Kirschner,
Museum photographer
a net and an aquarium pail, and dimly
recognize in him my own weatherbeaten
and battle-scarred self. That boy is —
somehow different. He is free, and bare-
legged, and eager with the devouring
eagerness of childhood; keen in his
observation of every least detail of the
pool beside which he is standing. It is
a pool very like the one shown in the
scenic case, every feature of the latter
recalling similar scenes that were then
of poignant interest to the Boy of Ten.
Impelled by the hunter’s ardor of pur-
suit and the scientist’s eagerness to col-
lect new specimens, the boy is gradually
filling his pail with fish, tadpole, froglet
and turtle, until after a morning’s work
he returns home triumphant and adds
the spoil to the wild life already inhabit-
ing his large aquarium. I suppose that
nearly every boy who lives anywhere
within reach of our ordinary woodlands
has maintained an aquarium; certainly
all the boys in our town did, and therein
lies the appeal of the “May” scene to
many observers of the male persuasion.
To the feminine minds also come memo-
ries: of girlhood days in the Maytime
woods collecting wild flowers, memories
coupled probably with amazement that
the abundant pond life of these same
woods had been utterly overlooked dur-
ing the careless days of youth.
Of course in these groups, the wild life
of many pools must be concentrated into
one, perhaps far beyond the capacity of
the normal insect supply to support life.
The boy who spent his morning collect-
ing for his aquarium had, I am sure, to
visit many such pools to secure even part
of the complete series shown here — but
there were no doubt many creatures
167
168
that he did not see in hiding in each pool,
while here in the group all are brought
out into plain view. Moreover, while
your memory may tell you that you
have seen just such a pool many times
in the woods, as a matter of fact you
have seen no such pool, for Nature, in
her grand, haphazard way, has no place
for Art in her small canvases; she
shows a detail here and a detail there,
but to assemble a complete scene that
will lead the eye hither and yon accord-
ing to the prearranged purposes of the
artist, requires a skillful staging of the
scene, using only legitimate natural
“properties,” and this Miss Dickerson
has most ably done for us.
Describing the groups more in detail,
the May scene, representing specifically
the life histories of our various species of
toads, frogs and tree frogs, assembles
all of them under the banner of early
spring. <A stray wild apple tree on the
right, with its abundant pink-and-white
blooms; a tall blueberry in full blossom;
various familiar vines and shrubs just
coming into leaf; young hornbeam sap-
lings, and a couple of sturdy oaks and
red maples, proclaim a water scene in
mid-May, and set the stage for the
amphibian life that we can expect to see
at that time. The eye further notes
cowslips, violets, trillums, jacks, dog-
tooths and anemones as the plants in
blossom, while the curls of unfurling
ferns tell us yet again that spring is here.
The hylas or “tree-toads” are out in
force; everywhere in the natural places
for them one espies them out, while
attached to crimson spikes of water-
plant down in the still, clear depths of
the pool are their clusters of pearl-like
eges, for this is their breeding season.
Various kinds of frogs and toads occupy
important positions on the right and on
the left of the case; down in the water
are the egg masses just laid, and hatching
egg masses with tiny tadpoles pendant
from the original matrix, and other
tadpoles just detached are to be noted
clinging to leaves and sticks. Over on
the mossy promontory under the jacks
are wood frogs just coming out of the
water, while in the pool near them are
their young tadpoles in a school, proving
their communal instinct as they swim
hastily away from the approach of a
spotted turtle.
We not only see these hylas and toads
and frogs as we stand before the case
but in memory we hear them too, the
blending of melodious trill and bawling
call of one and another. They make
the springtime vocal. How it is done is
suggested for some of the species in the
group — that little sac under the chin
is blown up by Mr. Lovelorn until full
of wind, like Shakespeare’s “lover,
sighing like a furnace,” and, without
opening the mouth, the penetrating
notes issue forth, made by the vocal
chords in the throat and reénforced by
this vocal sac. I recall an experiment
made by the Boy of Ten to settle a dis-
pute as to whether the hyla or the toad
made a certain bawling sound —a
sound which comes to me faintly now as
I remember and listen. It was on a still
night, encamped by a mountain lake,
when incessant amphibian calls of one
kind or another made the principal night
sounds. The boy crept far out onto a
great rock, jutting into the lake. All
about in the darkness had been the calls.
Silence instantly ensued with his com-
ing, but after a five minute’s wait, the
calls began again. Softly lighting a
-~andle, no fewer than six toads were dis-
covered within the distance of a few
feet. Presently one of the toads dis-
tended his throat pouch and issued his
song. Followed him another, and an-
other — and the dispute was settled for
good.
TOADS AT THE POND IN MAY
Four Fowler’s toads (in the Toad Group at the American Museum), one swimming, a second
just coming up from deep water, and two singing with throat resonating sacs expanded. Fowler’s
toads resort to the pond about the first of May (in southern New England, some two weeks earlier in
New York). The small black eggs enclosed in gelatinous strings are to be seen in the lower part of
the photograph
170
AQUARELLES OF OUR COMMON WOODLANDS
Some of the enemies of toad life are
also shown in this group; two ribbon
snakes on the left are ready to take toll
of the small “spring peepers”’ which are
whistling their high-pitched tones with
throat bubbles well expanded, while a
big water snake on the right has engulfed
one of the toads. Finally the bird life
of this time is not omitted for we note
in trees and bush many of the warblers,
the small flitting birds so typical of May:
black and white creeper, Maryland yel-
lowthroat, Blackburnian warbler, red-
start and chestnut-sided and_ yellow
warblers — these and others are here for
the sharp eye to see.
The scenic case of next appeal to me
is the one I call the June case — I sup-
pose it bears the more practical designa-
tion of the “bullfrog group” in museum
parlance. But to me it is June, late
June, no less! A deep, sunny pool in the
hot sunshine of mid-day is this. We
guessed that the time-o’-day of the May
scene was morning, from the dew-drops
twinkling on leaf and flower, but here
all these have evaporated, and it is high
The scenic
group shows the life of one of our most
noon in warm mid-summer.
common frogs in our common lily-padded
pools; a scene so familiar to all that its
appeal stirs the heart of every one of us.
Who has not stood contemplating such a
pool; with these clumps of blue-spiked
pickerel weed ranging away into the
cool backwaters under the shade of giant
forest trees, these small turtles scram-
bling awkwardly up over the flat lily pads
in the foreground, that bullfrog diving
into the deep water and leaving on the
surface a string of bubbles as he expels
the air from his lungs; those newts pok-
ing their way along the bottom! Every
detail of the scene is familiar, and no
detail precious to memory has been
omitted. There is our old comrade,
the water turtle, just diving off a stump
171
(as we generally see him!) while the
“bullies” are everywhere and all doing
something that illustrates one or an-
other of their life habits. Here is one
that has just snatched up a mouthful of
young water snakes, a whole squirming
mass of them, which he is cramming into
his mouth with a very human-like hand.
Here is another, looking up expectantly
at a wood mouse in a bush, for the bull-
frog is omnivorous and will eat anything
that he can catch and then swallow down
his capacious throat. Here is another
that has just snitched in a bumble-bee
off a wild white azalea (in full blossom so
that we know that it is late June or early
July), and the way he does it with his ex-
tensible tongue is well set forth. At this
time of the year, too, frogs peel off the
old skin, as shown by that fellow on the
right who is just disrobing, and eating
the old skin — frugal Frenchman — that
nothing be lost! Bullfrog tadpoles are
here, too. It takes about two years to get
up to frogdom from tadpolehood, and
the whole process, including losing one’s
tail and living just above the water on a
tiny snag, is shown here. Here also are
some of the enemies of the “bullie.” A
black snake lurks behind that azalea and
his sinister intentions are only too evi-
dent. One large bullfrog who has seen
him is “playing stone,” knowing well
that the snake’s eyesight for inanimate
objects is not over-keen. He has gath-
ered himself into a smooth round wuzzle
of green, and the snake sees him not.
The latter is so intent on a young bull-
frog, which in his turn is so intent upon a
chickadee just alighted on a birch branch
above him, that a double tragedy seems
imminent.
To the left of this scene is the Septem-
ber case, so-called the “ giant salamander
group.” It is a big trout stream with
yellow-leaved sycamore and ripening
frost grapes hanging over, and blue asters
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AQUARELLES OF OUR COMMON WOODLANDS
bending low to the water. A kingfisher
sits above, and the water flows toward
you over many a rocky riffle, streaming
the long fronds of brookweed in the cur-
rent; flowing, flowing endlessly — right
into your lap seemingly, a wonderful
example of arrested motion by the
artistry of the Museum preparators who
will have Nature
presented to us
just as she appears
in reality. Even
the very stones of
the brook bottom
have that brown,
velvety look that
settled
sediment, and that
comes of
peculiar — slippery
covering that
brings many a
trout fisherman to
grief! Herein are
depicted the life
history and habits
of the giant sala-
mander, familiar to
those who wade the
mountain streams.
A greedy voracious
beast and a canni-
bal, with clumsy
ways. Here is one
that has seized a
fish of the school
which is swimming
upstream, for in
spite of his clumsy
the
mander’s
body, sala-
protec-
tive coloration,
blending — exactly
with the rocks of
the brook bed, en-
him — when he is quick to strike, and
his mouth opens the full extent of the
width of his head. Here are two big
fellows fighting over a string of eggs.
The one on guard over the eggs was
lying among them under the rock watch-
ing, when along came a second salaman-
der and started to bolt the eggs, whereat
ables him to le in
wait until a brook
fish hovers over
About a moss and violet covered root in the water (from the toad
group). The common ‘‘tree toad’’ or so-called ‘‘weather prophet” (Hyla
versicolor) is in the pond but a short time and then resorts to the orchard,
the garden or edge of the woods. Notice the small clusters of this hyla’s
pearl-like eggs on the water plants
174
he has been seized amidships by the
angry guard, although how well he is to
be finally punished for his misdeed the
scene does not tell us. Young salaman-
ders are to be seen foraging along the
bottom, and the red, land form of the
newt is out on the bank of the river to
serve as astandard of size for comparison
with the giant species.
Another group, which I have never had
the good fortune to observe in the natural
state, is that showing some of the rep-
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
tilian life of the desert. Looking sea-
ward on an island in the Gulf of Cali-
fornia, appears to be this scene, the red
voleanic rock, the cactus life, saguaro,
ocotillo and palo-verde, being prominent
in the stage setting. Under a volcanic
fissure is the lair of a great rattler of the
desert, he is just raising his head from his
coils to look over the possibilities of prey
outside. Small highly colored desert liz-
ards are there for the catching, and an
iguana is climbing up over the spines of
a great cactus to sleep in the sun at the
top.
lizards of the North American continent
Various chuckwallas, as the largest
are called, sport among the rocks or
dig in the sand, while two black chuck-
wallas are fighting for the possession of a
cactus blossom, suggesting that their
food is vegetable. It is a wild, stern
land, where water is not and men die
of thirst, a land of the agony of black
protruding tongue and_ alkali-scorched
throat. Nevertheless, it has a fascina-
tion for all of us, it is so strange, so differ-
ent, one of those typical bits of American
wilderness scenery with which all of us
ought to be better acquainted.
One is loath to close without some
The pickerel frog (Rane palustris), with head above the surface of the pond (photograph from
the Toad Group), and old egg mass and hatching tadpoles.
The portion of decayed stump and
sphagnum moss beside it (at the left) are real, the frog, tadpoles and marsh marigolds are wax, the
egg mass is blown glass
AQUARELLES OF OUR COMMON WOODLANDS
word as to the inspiration these groups!
give to go out and see for oneself these
scenes put forth so powerfully. The
appeal to children is strong; they are
the nature lovers of the future, in whom
the love of wild life imparted by the
great story of the Museum cases will
bear fruit in better protection of what
wild spots we still have left. We know
nothing about immortality, but this we
know, that in our children we do live,
and in them there will be carried forward
what character the world once knew as
ourselves. The Boy of Ten stands in the
flesh before me, myself, yet also so differ-
ent, my own son, just turned ten years.
How do these scenes strike him? Well—
there is little that those bright blue eyes
overlook; not a tiny detail that passes
unnoticed. He is living in the midst of
the thing, not viewing it from a distance
as we older ones must. Every scrap of
pond life refers at once to his own
aquarium: here’s where you look for
this particular kind of tadpole — he
didn’t know that there were several
varieties of tadpoles before; that back-
water is the place where those newts
grow; never knew before that those pe-
culiar greenish warty bulbs were a frog’s
egg mass, thought all eggs were in strings
like toad’s eggs — Oh, these cases were a
mine of practical information to him,
and we look for a large increase in the
population of the aquarium this spring!
And, what of that other child, not so
1 Photographs of the reptile and amphibian
groups of the American Museum, other than the
Toad Group will be found in previous issues of the
Journat as follows: Bullfrog Group, October,
1911; Giant Salamander Group, December, 1912;
Lower California Lizard Group, February. 1914.
175
fortunate as to have his mind directed
from infancy to the world of the great
out-of-doors and with no large country-
side to roam over, the city waif who
comes in here to look—and wonder?
Who can tell but that many such re-
ceive their first call to go back to the
land, here; to forsake the crowded slum
where body nor soul has a chance, and
to earn their bread in their future close
to the green soil, with just such a pond
right over the dip of the hill!
And what of the older ones, we whose
pathways in life are fixed, and may not
be changed because here in the city we
earn the bread that those dependent
upon us must eat?
to us?
What of the appeal
Here is Nature, spread before
us; Nature in her most charming mood, .
with her silver filaments of still waters,
her teeming abundance of humble (but
not really familiar) pond life. And Na-
ture can be found within an hour’s train
or trolley ride of the city. Shall we pre-
sume that, to the thousands who look
upon these scenes there comes no desire
to look again at the forgotten brookside?
To discover for themselves many things
besides flowers and birds, things that
were before passed over unheeded, not
knowing what to look for, nor realizing
what a wealth of interest lay here un-
touched? Shall we not rather rest as-
sured that thousands have here had
reborn in them an inspiration to re-
visit old scenes, and a resolve not yet
to let the home country-side relapse
into the limbo of forgotten memories,
not yet to let one’s love of Nature be
deep-buried in the dust of the city’s
turmoil.
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BIRD BATHS AND DRINKING POOLS’
By Ernest Harold Baynes
drought, there is nothing more
attractive to birds than water.
They need it to drink and to bathe in,
and when the natural pools and streams
are dried up, they will come from far
and near to visit a properly constructed
bird bath. At the very time this chap-
ter is being written the weather is very
hot and dry and birds are coming to the
artificial baths in this village, Meriden,
New Hampshire, not one at a time, but
by scores. Only this morning they
gathered at a little cement bath just
outside my study window, and gave it
the appearance of an avian Manhattan
Beach. I saw two bluebirds, a che-
wink, a white-throated sparrow, a song
sparrow, a junco, a chipping sparrow
and a myrtle warbler, all bathing at
once and at least a score of other birds
were hopping about in the grass or
perched in the bushes nearby, awaiting
their turn. There are similar scenes
at nearly all the bird baths in Meriden.
One example will suffice. In the Bird
Sanctuary there is a bath made from a
granite boulder, or rather half a boulder,
for it was split in two, ages ago, proba-
bly by the frost. It broke in such a
way that one half had a gently-sloping
concave surface and we took this half,
turned the concave surface uppermost
that when filled with water it might
form a natural pool for the birds. It
was set upon a well-made stone founda-
tion, and a hole was drilled down
through to admit a lead pipe which
supplies running water. As I ap-
proached this bath one evening after
|" hot weather, especially in time of
1 This article is from Mr. Baynes’s forthcoming
book, Wild Bird Guests and How to Entertain
Them. E. P. Dutton and Company, New York.
sundown, I saw the whole surface of the
water dancing as though a shoal of little
fish were sporting in it, and spray was
flying in every direction. It was simply
a flock of birds taking their evening
bath. Perhaps because night was com-
ing on they were too impatient to wait
their turn, for all seemed to be trying
to get in at once, and most of them were
successful. Juncos seemed to be most
numerous, but there were several blue-
birds and myrtle warblers and some
sparrows which in their wet plumage
and in the uncertain light I could not
identify. A little apart a phoebe sat on
a twig above the pool, watching for
chances to dip down into the water for
an instant, after which she would re-
turn to the twig to preen her feathers.
Birds come to our bird baths every day
in summer and fall, in an almost con-
tinuous procession, but usually just a few
are present at the same moment. They
come in large flocks only at exceptional
times, usually during severe drought.
Bird baths may be as simple or as
elaborate as one likes. A rough earthen-
ware saucer from six inches to twelve
inches in diameter and with half an inch
of fresh water in it, is a great deal better
than nothing and may attract some of
the most delightful birds. I have seen
robins, catbirds, Baltimore orioles and
rose-breasted grosbeaks and many others
bathe in an earthenware saucer. But
the supplying of water is so very impor-
tant that most of us will wish to do rather
more than put out a saucer. Even from
a selfish standpoint it is well to give
birds all the water they want. If we do,
they will be much less likely to destroy
our small fruits which they sometimes
eat chiefly for the fluid contained.
177
178
In making any bird baths, the first
thing to look out for is the depth of the
water. Few of the birds which will
come to bathe will use water of greater
depth than two and a half inches, and
even for blue jays and grackles five
inches is about the limit. But most
birds will not jump off into any such
depth, so if we had a pool with a uniform
depth of two and a half inches, birds
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
popular with the birds, is made on the
principle of a flight of broad steps, each
one of which is two feet long and seven
inches wide. There are five of these
steps, each one-half inch lower than the
last, so that when the water is half an
inch deep on the top step, it is two and a
half inches deep on the bottom one.
The birds invariably enter the water at
the top step. Their favorite steps are
Birds will come from far and near to visit a properly constructed bird bath. Mr. Baynes has seen
in a simple little cement pool like this of the photograph seven species of birds at one time: bluebirds,
a chewink, a white-throated sparrow, a song sparrow, a junco, a chipping sparrow and a myrtle warbler —
and at least a dozen other birds awaiting their turn nearby
would come and drink, but few if any
would bathe. So we must arrange for
shallow places where the birds can enter
the water; they will go in deeper
presently, but they are very cautious.
Half an inch is a good depth for the shal-
lows and if the depth grades off to
nothing at all, so much the better. A
bath which the writer invented some
time ago and which has proved very
the second and third; they seldom go
lower than that. The bottom is covered
with clean sand and bright pebbles from
a trout brook, and here and _ there
among them are strewn beautifully
tinted shells.
Close beside the bath is a wooden tray
of earth, on which are scattered every
morning, birdseed of several kinds, bits
of bread, a little suet, ripe raspberries
BIRD BATHS AND
and a piece of banana perhaps, as addi-
attractions for the feathered
guests. The smallest visitors are the
chipping sparrows, gentle, modest little
fellows, that come to the food tray
quietly as mice, crack a few seeds, and
then take a bath on the top step where
the water is shallow. Almost burly in
comparison, are the purple finches,
which come, often two or three at a time,
make a full meal in the food tray, and
then souse themselves thoroughly in the
deeper water, regardless of theories
concerning the dangers of bathing too
soon after dinner.
Perhaps the most amusing visitor is a
eatbird, which has a nest in the lilac
bush, from whose top, in the early morn-
ing, he sings his wonderful song so sur-
prising to those who know him by his
cat-call only. He comes boldly to the
food tray, hops lightly about, jauntily
flirting his long tail, swallows a ripe rasp-
berry, takes a bite or two of banana, and
then proceeds to inspect the bath as if
he had never seen it before. He cocks
his head first on one side and then on the
other, hops into the shallow water and
begins to peck at the shells and pebbles
at the bottom. Perhaps he will take
one in his bill and hold it for a moment
before dropping it back. Then he goes
out into deeper water, and with wings
vibrating as though operated by an elec-
tric current, takes a thorough bath “all
over.’ When he comes out, he is a
sorry-looking object, dripping wet and
with tail-feathers stuck together. But
apparently he cares nothing for appear-
ances, and proceeds with his toilet forth-
with. He shakes himself vigorously,
flips his tail from side to side to get rid
of the bulk of the water, and then it is
surprising how soon, with the aid of his
deft bill and a warm sun, he makes
himself into a clean fluffy catbird again.
Sometimes, toward evening a_blue-
tional
DRINKING POCLS 179
bird visits the bath, and after washing
himself in a very business-like way, flies
off to a dead tree to preen and dry his
feathers. Occasionally a phoebe comes,
but apparently takes a bath more from
a sense of duty than from any love of
bathing. He seems to dislike cold water
about as much as does the average small
boy, for instead of getting right into it
as most birds do, he flits through it,
barely getting his feet wet. Perhaps
this habit has been acquired by re-
peatedly darting after insects, and pos-
sibly is common to all flycatchers; at
any rate I have seen a kingbird bathe by
dashing through the water of a stream
time and again, returning after each dip
to a snag, from which he made a fresh
dive after stopping a moment to preen
his feathers—and perhaps to catch his
breath.
The song sparrows are perhaps the
most numerous visitors to this bird
bath; they come earlier and stay later
than any of the other birds. They act
as if they owned this particular sheet of
water, three feet by two, and if any other
bird ventures too near while a song spar-
row is bathing, the former is promptly
driven away. These sparrows seem to
love the water, and not only splash in it,
but squat right down in it until practi-
eally nothing but their heads are stick-
ing out. Sometimes when it is almost
dark, and the last red tinge of afterglow
is reflected in the tiny pool, a couple of
dark spots on the shining surface tell
just where two little song sparrows are
cooling off for the night.
We have been altogether too busy to
keep close watch on this bath but at
different times we have observed the
following birds using it: flicker, phoebe,
Baltimore oriole, purple finch, white-
winged crossbill, American goldfinch,
vesper sparrow, white-throated spar-
row, chipping sparrow, junco, song
180
sparrow, chewink, cedar waxwing, black-
and-white warbler, Nashville warbler,
myrtle warbler, chestnut-sided warbler,
catbird, brown thrasher, hermit thrush,
robin and bluebird. Probably there
have been many more which we have
not observed.
The arrangement of steps,
interesting, is by no means necessary.
A bath about three feet long, two feet
wide and three inches deep, with a con-
tinuously sloping and roughened bottom,
starting at one end half an inch from
the top and ending at the other at its
lowest point, would probably answer
the purpose just as well. Speaking of
the roughened bottom, reminds me that
almost if not quite as important as the
depth of water, is the character of the
footing on the bottom. This should
never be slippery, for birds lose confi-
dence when they find they cannot keep
their feet. A layer of coarse sand or
fine pebbles will usually give the de-
sired “footing” in a bird bath, and a
slippery pan or dish can be rendered
safe by placing in it a freshly-cut sod,
having about half an inch of the grass
submerged. This makes a wet spot
such as many of the small birds are very
fond of.
while
Concrete is very useful for the con-
struction of pools for the comfort of
birds; it may be used alone, as in the
case of a bird bath in my own garden, or
in connection with natural rock crop-
ping out above the earth. The former
was made as follows. I scooped out in
the lawn an elliptical hollow, four feet
by three feet six inches, the sides sloping
down in all directions toward the center
where the depth was four or five inches.
I then took some Portland cement and
some coarse sand and mixed the two, in
the proportion of one of cement to four
of sand, adding just enough water to
give the consistency of common mortar.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Then with my hand, I plastered the
surface of the hollow, putting in enough
to make the depth at the center about
two and a half inches. I was careful not
to make the sides too smooth, although
the concrete itself gives an excellent
foothold for the birds. We have no
running water in this; about once a week
we sweep the water out with a stiff
broom and put two pails of fresh water
into it. It has been a complete success,
and being within ten feet of the house
we have had great pleasure in watch-
ing the birds from the windows and from
the piazzas. We have seen six blue-
birds — the parents and four young —
bathing in it at once, and at other times
there have been whole flocks of song
sparrows, white-throated sparrows and
juncos, in addition to the many birds
that come in smaller numbers. With a
few shrubs and hardy flowers planted
about it, such a bath can be made a
beautiful little feature in any garden.
And of course there is no reason in the
world why it should not be made much
larger if one has plenty of room and
the time to make it.
Dr. Ernest L. Huse, president of The
Meriden Bird Club, has a somewhat
similar bath in his garden, but he has
carried the idea a little farther. In the
center he has sunk a tub, and from the
rim, which is perhaps two and a half
inches below the surface of the ground,
the concrete slants outward and upward
in all directions, making shallows in
which the birds will drink and bathe.
In the tub, pond lilies are planted, and
spread their leaves and blossoms over
the surface. Round about, shrubs and
tall grasses are planted, and here and
there among them one catches a glimpse
of little food trays, filled with hemp and
millet which tend to keep the birds
about the spot even when the bath is
over. There is hardly a limit to what
Two and a half inches is about the proper depth of water for a bird bath, with five inches the
maximum for blue jays and grackles. A successful bath may be provided with an arrangement of
steps under water, giving shallow spots for the bird’s cautious entrance and deeper places for his later
delight
From a hearty meal at the food tray birds may fly directly to the bird bath, entering the
shallowest water first, then sousing themselves thoroughly in the deepest part — with no respect for
theories regarding a bath too soon after dinner
‘
181
shrubs or grassabout
it, for behind such
things a cat will
crouch.
I have spoken of
a bird bath made of
a granite boulder;
we have two like
this in Meriden, New
Hampshire, and they
are among the most
satisfactory baths
we have. The one
in the Meriden Bird
Club’s sanctuary, es-
timated to weigh
five tons, was lying
where the glacier
Such a pool at dusk may emit a flying spray from the wet plumage of left it on a hillside
bathing bluebirds and song sparrows, while an exclusive phoebe is waiting
on a branch above for a chance to cool off for the night by a few dashes rather more than a
through the water. A concrete pool with tlowers planted about it, may mile away. For the
be made an attractive feature of any garden
benefit of those who
may be done with concrete in this way, may have similar baths in view, I will
especially if it is used in connection with | say that several teams of oxen were re-
beautiful stones, pebbles, sand and shells. quired to move it, and that to haul it,
Of course in the case of bird baths set it on a good foundation of stones,
which are not raised well
above the ground, great care
must be taken that the little
bathers are not pounced upon
by cats, which would other-
wise have the songsters at an
unusual disadvantage. In
the first place the birds are
so engrossed with the joy of
the bath that they are less
rary than usual, and their
feathers being wet they fly
slowly and heavily, often
close to the ground. If we
cannot be sure about cats, we
must either have the bath
raised well above the ground
on some object which a cat
cannot climb, or else we must
be content with a very plain
bath out in the open, without
182
A bird bath in the Bird Sanctuary at Meriden, New Hamp-
shire, is made in the natural hollow of a split granite boulder.
The boulder has been placed upon a stone foundation and fitted
with a pipe leading upward through a hole drilled in the boulder
to give a continual supply of fresh water
t2 OF
NVA
tay ye WNT
pS Oe :
BRONZE BIRD FOUNTAIN
Exccuted by Mrs. Louis Saint Gaudens for the Bird Sanctuary at Meriden
184
and drill a hole through it for the water
pipe, cost forty dollars. It is a beauti-
ful object, very suitable for its purpose
and will last forever. It was presented
to the Club by a Boston lady who de-
sired to establish a bird fountain in
memory of her friend, Dr. Edward
Everett Hale, himself a lover of birds.
I often think how much more appro-
priate as a memorial to a real man or
woman is a beautiful thing like this,
made by Nature, carved by her mighty
forces, and dedicated to the use and
enjoyment of the loveliest of her children,
than is a shining, ugly and utterly useless
polished shaft, whose chief recommen-
dation is that it costs from a hundred
to a thousand times as much.
The lovely bronze fountain executed
by Mrs. Louis Saint Gaudens, is another
of the charming features of the Bird
Sanctuary at Meriden, and makes one
realize that with the sculptor as an
assistant there is no end to the artistic
bird baths which may be designed.
This particular bath was made in com-
memoration of the first presentation of
Percy MacKaye’s Bird Masque, Sanc-
tuary, and was presented to the Meri-
den Bird Club by a New York lady who
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
witnessed the play. It will be seen by
the shallowness of the basin at the top
that my remarks about the depth of the
water apply just as much to a formal
work of art as to a granite boulder or an
earthenware saucer. The rule about
surface also applies, and the sculptoress
purposely left the surface of the inside
of the basin slightly rough that the feet
of the little bathers might not. slip.
Below the shallow bowl and in bas-relief
may be seen in procession the principal
characters who took part in the masque.
Below these are interesting inscriptions,
some of them historical, others consist-
ing of quotations from the masque itself.
Of these the one that sends the reader
away filled with determination to do
something for the cause of bird conserva-
tion is the compact proposed by the poet
to the converted plume-hunter and the
naturalist : —
A compact, then, that when we go
Forth from these gracious trees
Into the world, we go as witnesses
Before the men who make our country’s laws,
And by our witness show
In burning words
The meaning of these sylvan mysteries:
Freedom and sanctuary for the birds!
In the country of the Apache Indian
MOTION PICTURE RECORDS OF INDIANS
FILMS THATSHOW THE COMMON INDUSTRIES OF THE APACHE
By Pliny E. Goddard
HE ethnologist is not primarily
| concerned with the actual ob-
jects displayed in a museum.
The true subject matter of ethnology is
made up of the habitual movements and
activities of a people. An Indian on
horseback does not differ in general
appearance from a white man in that
position, but the fact that an Indian
mounts from one side and a white man
from the other constitutes an important
fact in ethnology. It is one of the small
habits which in their combined effect
make the difference between a white
man and an Indian. Such habits are
the most important means of mak-
ing comparative and historical studies
in ethnology, for they are generally
learned from one’s neighbors or ances-
tors. Through them, therefore, one may
trace the distribution of habits and cus-
toms geographically or historically.
In the past, such habits have been
studied by observing the daily life of a
people and reducing such observations
to writing, using drawings and _ photo-
graphs as illustrations. It is tolerably
difficult to observe and record every
significant movement involved in the
work of a single individual engaged in
such a simple task as making a flint
arrowhead. When several individuals
are engaged in the same undertaking, it
becomes impossible for a single observer
to follow the movements of each worker.
The moving-picture camera furnishes
an excellent method of making a perma-
nent record of the movements of one or,
if properly localized, of several people.
This record can be scrutinized in detail
for as long a time as is desired and can
be viewed repeatedly. It records many
things which otherwise would not be
made objective, such as the character-
istic nervous coérdinations and move-
ments of different people. To make
such records of value, great pains must
be taken not to arouse self-conscious-
ness in the subjects being photographed.
Such unavoidable self-consciousness as
185
186 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM
1— Posture assumed and position of the hands in dis-
charging an arrow
2— From the film the movement of the hands in basket-
making can be observed
' 3 — Liquid pitch is being applied to a basket to render it water-
tight
JOURNAL
arises when one first faces
a camera disappears as the
persons become interested
in the work or ceremony.
It would require a very
long time to secure a record
of the various industries
of a tribe if these were all
taken as they are actually
performed as a matter of
yearly routine. In practice,
it is necessary to have these
duties undertaken for the
special purpose of photo-
graphing them. When this
is done, however, it is usu-
ally possible to allow the
subjects to assume their
own poses and _ positions
even if the result is less
attractive in arrangement.
The photographer needs
only to insist on a proper
relation to the source of the
light. To take the entire
action of a piece of work
lasting for several hours,
such as the preparation of
the pitch and its application
to a water basket, involves
too great an expense and
more film than can be uti-
lized. In such cases it is
necessary to have the cam-
era constantly in position,
and to operate it only when
movements of significance
occur. It is seldom neces-
sary to change its position
for simple industrial acts.
During a field trip to the
San Carlos Apache this
year a small daylight load-
ing camera was employed.
Films were made of such
industries as basket-mak-
ing, the boiling and applica-
MOTION PICTURE RECORDS OF INDIANS 187
tion of pitch to make a basket water- atically and energetically in North
tight, the gathering of mesquite beans, America, while there are Indians still
the grinding of corn, the preparation living who have habitually performed
and cooking of the century-plant stump. these native industrial acts. After the
Men were photographed flaking arrow- disappearance of primitive life, films of
heads, feathering arrows, and put- this sort will be invaluable.
ting sinew on a
bow. The rather
simple process of
discharging an ar-
row from a bow,
taken on twenty-
five feet of film,
illustrates the posi-
tion of holding the
bow and the arrow
release practised
by the Apache,
two points of con-
siderable compara-
tive interest. It
was not possible to
secure films of re-
ligious ceremonies
because of the su-
perstitious attitude
of the Indians.
Films of a gam-
bling game in pro-
gress and of two
old men taking a
sweat bath were
secured.
Considering the
results obtained,
the method is not
excessively expen-
sive. It ought to 1 — Apache women shelling acorns and grinding and shelling corn
b i 2 — Gathering mesquite beans, the pods only of which are edible
e applied system- [Still pictures taken in connection with motion films]
AUGUST WEISMANN, ZOOLOGIST, 1834-1914
A follower and supporter of Darwin, whose work played an important part in
the development of the theory of heredity
188
AUGUST WEISMANN
Born January 17, 1834, died November 5, 1914
By Frank R. Lillie
Professor of Zodlogy at the University of Chicago
HE life of Professor Weismann
a spanned the most interesting
and important period in the
history of biology. In his early child-
hood Schleiden and Schwann established
the cell theory (1838-1839); he was a
young man of twenty-five at the time
of publication of Darwin’s Origin of
Species (1859). During his active life
as zodlogist were discovered those great
principles concerning cell-division, the
fertilization of the egg and the history of
the germ-cells, which he applied with
such success to the theory of heredity.
He participated in the grand struggle
over the evolution theory and the factors
of evolution during the latter half of the
nineteenth century; he witnessed the
rise of experimental zodlogy and in his
old age came the period of exact research
in genetics, which his own studies had
done much to prepare.
The last weeks of his life were sad-
dened by the great war. He had liveda
long life full of loving and disinterested
labor, crowned by many honors and the
universal respect of the scientific world.
An immense pathos inheres in his last
public act —the relinquishment of the
academic honors bestowed on him in
England.
Like so many of the zodlogists of his
time Weismann studied medicine, but
he found opportunity during the short
period of its practice to carry out z06-
logical investigations on the life history
and especially the post-embryonic devel-
opment and metamorphosis of flies. In
1863 he became attached to the Uni-
versity of Freiburg, and spent the re-
mainder of his life, fifty-one years, in
this quiet provincial University, in spite
of offers from larger universities. Here
he found the leisure and the quiet
beautiful surroundings in which he could
devote himself heart and soul to investi-
gation and reflection. His objective in-
vestigations were limited by serious
trouble with his eyes which began in the
seventies, and later compelled him to
relinquish the microscopical studies for
which he had such unbounded enthu-
siasm. His vision was thus turned more
and more inward to constructive think-
ing; it was no doubt in part due to this
physical handicap that we owe his great
theoretical generalizations.
Weismann was a true naturalist, who
viewed nature with a loving enthusiasm
which appears clearly in the objective
researches in zodlogy of the first fifty
years of his life. His main contributions
are classical in their mastery of detail,
wealth of observation and broad outlook.
His earliest studies were physiological
and histological (1858-1862). Then fol-
lowed a series of papers on the embryonic
and post-embryonic development of flies
(1862-1866). Studies on the seasonal
dimorphism of butterflies next engaged
his attention in which he raised questions
that led to later fundamental researches
by other investigators. In 1875 he
began a long series of studies on the
natural history and reproductions of
Daphnids (continued to 1889) which
constitute the foundation of all subse-
quent study on this group and were
especially important for the funda-
mental problems of parthenogenesis, sex-
189
190
determination, and significance of the
polar bodies. Between 1880 and 1883
he was engaged in his epoch-making
researches on the germ-cells of hydroids
which uncovered the fundamental facts
on which his theory of the continuity of
the germ-plasm was based.
The special papers and memoirs deal-
ing with these and other investigations
constitute a great body of knowledge to
which zoologists will constantly refer as
the foundation of many important lines
of research.
About 1884 he was forced to turn from
such investigations, owing to increasing
eye troubles. From this time date those
contributions to the theory of evolution
and heredity for which he is best known
to the general educated public, as one of
the greatest of Darwin’s successors.
These were however by no means his
first publications on these subjects, for
in 1868 he had published a “ Justifica-
tion of the Darwinian Theory,” in 1873
a study of the influence of isolation in the
origin of species, and a volume of studies
on the theory of descent, later translated
into English.
His best-known contributions on these
subjects began with a series of essays
published between 1881 and 1891 on the
“Duration of Life”? (1881), on ‘ Hered-
ity’ (1883), “Life and Death” (1883),
“The Continuity of the Germ-plasm as
the Foundation of a Theory of Hered-
ity’ (1885), “ The Significance of Sexual
Reproduction in the Theory of Natural
Selection ’’ (1886), ete., ete., all of which
led up to and culminated in his volume
on The Germ-plasm (1892). In 1896 his
Germinal Selections appeared. In 1902
all of his theoretical considerations were
brought together in two volumes on, The
Evolution Theory, translated by Professor
and Mrs. J. Arthur Thompson in 1904.
It is impossible to discuss in any full-
ness the theories of these publications.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
All centered around his conception of the
continuity of the germ-plasm, and of
heredity as developmental recapitula-
tion; thus the denial of the prevalent
belief in the inheritance of acquired
characters was a necessary corollary of
this conception of inheritance. Weis-
mann maintained not only that the in-
heritance of variations and mutilations
of somatic origin was theoretically im-
possible, but he labored to show that it
was by no means a necessary support of
the evolution theory, as had been gener-
ally assumed. He met with greatest
skill and keenest logic the many attacks
which followed the statement of his
position; his controversy with Herbert
Spencer on this subject between 1893
and 1895 constituted the most notable
of these debates. In the end he com-
pletely won over the great majority of
to his way of thinking,
and freed the theory of evolution and
heredity from an enormous incubus.
In his theory of the continuity of
the germ-plasm, Weismann formulated a
point of view on which all subsequent
genetic research must be based. He
recognized with Darwin that a theory
of evolution must find its final analysis
in the life history of the individual,
which contains the key to heredity and
variation. Darwin’s theory of pangene-
sis, constructed as a formal hypothesis
of heredity and variation, involved un-
naturalists
necessary and untenable conceptions;
he had assumed that each cell of the
body produced, at all stages of its life,
living particles (gemmules) capable of
reproducing the parent cells. These
particles were cast off from the parent
cells and accumulated in the germ-cells,
each of which was supposed to contain a
complete assortment arranged in a
definite fashion. The development from
the germ-cell depended on the successive
liberation and development of these
AUGUST WEISMANN
particles into cells like those from which
they originally arose. The inheritance
of acquired characters could thus be
explained on the assumption that modi-
fied cells produced modified gemmules
which reproduced the acquired modifica-
tion in the succeeding generation.
Weismann rejected the centripetal
part of the Darwinian theory, while still
retaining certain fundamental concep-
tions of pangenesis. The theory of the
continuity of the germ-plasm however
offers a complete antithesis to Darwin’s
theory in the sense that, whereas Darwin
regarded the germ-cells as a secretion of
the entire body, Weismann regarded
them as genetically distinct from all the
remainder of the body or soma — as
producing the soma but not produced by
it. In the production of the soma not all
of the active protoplasm (germ-plasm)
of the original germ-cell was used up;
but a certain amount of it was retained
unmodified and formed the germ-cells
of the new generation. Thus the germ
cells of any one generation were regarded
as a direct unmodified product of the
germ-cells of the parents, and so were
handed down from generation to genera-
tion, essentially uninfluenced by the
soma, retaining their original attributes
and developmental capacities unchanged.
This conception constituted an immense
simplification of the Darwinian scheme.
However, Weismann accomplished
Darwin’s theory had been
a purely imaginative construction and
was frankly acknowledged by himself
to be a formal hypothesis. Weismann’s
theory on the other hand was based on
the newly discovered facts concerning cell
division, the fertilization of the egg and
the processes involved in the origin of
germ-cells. As a theory of heredity it
has precisely the same relation to Dar-
win’s theory of pangenesis that the
latter’s theory of natural selection had
much more.
191
borne to preceding evolution theories.
It permitted test and verification and
involved predictions which have been
verified in certain cases, the most crucial
test of any theory.
The studies of cell-division carried out
by Fleming, Hertwig and others had
revealed a precise set of phenomena in
nuclear division common to animals and
plants, which suggested (Roux) a funda-
mental réle of the nuclear elements or
chromosomes in the cell life. Similarly
the studies of Hertwig, Strasburger, Fol,
and Van Beneden on fertilization had
shown the predominantly — significant
part played in the process by the nucleus
and its chromosomes; and the begin-
nings of knowledge, destined soon to be
carried very much farther, concerning
the maturation phenomena of the germ-
cells, had demonstrated a similar pre-
dominance of significance of the chromo-
somes in these processes. Weismann
used all of these data first in the identi-
fication of the chromosomes as the really
significant part of the germ-cells (germ-
plasm), and second in the construction
of a detailed theory on this basis. He
was thus able to predict as a logical
necessity, the occurrence at some stage
in the life history of a reduction division
of the nuclei of the germ-cells which
would halve the number of chromosomes
instead of maintaining the whole number
as in all of the other divisions. This
prediction has been universally realized
in plants and animals. The phenome-
non was later found to parallel exactly
the Mendelian laws of inheritance and to
furnish their explanation to a consider-
able extent. There are few instances
in the history of science, outside of
astronomy, in which prediction has been
so adequately and significantly fulfilled.
The fundamental assumption of the
theory of continuity of the germ-plasm
involved corollaries of the most signifi-
192
cant kind. If the germ-plasm is at all
times distinct from the soma, then defi-
nite characters acquired by the individ-
ual in the course of its lifetime must
perish with the individual. There was
no known or conceivable mechanism by
which such characters could be trans-
ferred to the germ-cells and thus carried
over to a succeeding generation. Weis-
mann at once recognized this, and
began that attack on the belief in the
inheritance of acquired characters which
furnished the sharpest post-Darwinian
debate of the nineteenth century. Weis-
mann argued in the following ways:
(1) Such inheritance is theoretically in-
conceivable; this argument was devel-
oped in so thorough a fashion as to be
regarded by many as conclusive in itself.
(2) The data usually cited to support the
case of the inheritance of acquired char-
acters were shown to be so uncritical as
not to bear examination, in some cases as
to the facts themselves and in others as
to their interpretation. Under the latter
head the supposed inheritance of diseased
conditions, as inferred at that time, was
shown to be equally explicable on the
assumption of inheritance of germinal
weakness. (38) Weismann carried out
detailed critical experiments to investi-
gate the commonly accepted idea of
inheritance of mutilations; for many
generations he amputated the tails of
white mice and found by measurement
that the tails came as long at the end as
at the beginning. (4) He argued suc-
cessfully against the contention that
inheritance of acquired characters is
necessary to explain evolution.
If heritable variations do not arise by
use or disuse of parts or by action of
incident external forces upon the organ-
ism, it is necessary to explain how they
come about. Weismann put forward
three ideas which contain the germ of our
modern working hypotheses, viz. (1)
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
the theory of germinal selection; (2)
the results of amphimixis; and (3)
direct action of environment on the
germ.
The theory of germinal selection in-
volves the postulated architecture of the
germ-plasm, which was conceived as
composed of a great number of elemen-
tary particles (determinants), each the
representative of some unit-character of
the organism. Weismann reasoned in
general that conditions in the germ-
plasm must be conceived as variable,
and thus more or less favorable for the
growth of these elements; favored ones
would tend to increase, those in unfavor-
The concep-
tion of the struggle for existence was
able positions to decrease.
transferred to the germ-plasm and varia-
tion-producing modifications of the germ-
This
Weismann himself
laid great store, has been sterile; it was
plasm were attributed thereto.
theory, by which
purely formal and has had no effect on
research.
The second hypothesis concerning the
effects of amphimixis, or admixture of
parental germ-plasms in fertilization, was
by no means original with Weismann;
but he was the first one adequately to
prove its significance and to show how
the admixture of different sets of paren-
tal characteristics, their shuffling in the
filial germ-plasm and redistribution in
the half reduction divisions of the filial
germ-cells is a constant, and perhaps
the greatest, source of heritable varia-
tions. However, he did not proceed
quite to the extreme of the past presi-
dent of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, Professor Bate-
son, and postulate the possibility that
evolution has been productive of nothing
essentially new from its inception.
The third source of heritable varia-
tions postulated by Weismann, viz.
the action of incident external forces
AUGUST WEISMANN
upon the germ-plasm directly was never
adequately analyzed by him. He al-
ludes to it in his earlier essays, without
following the matter farther. It has
required the detailed investigations of
Tower and MacDougal especially to give
this real meaning, and such studies are
still in their infancy. However, it is
important to recognize Weismann’s fore-
sight with reference to this.
It is no part of this review to point out
the weaknesses of Weismann’s theories,
for this is not the place for an adequate
critical review. However, we should
be open to the charge at least of incom-
pleteness if we failed to point out that
Weismann’s theories were based on the
data of a purely morphological period
of genetic research. The experimental
studies which followed close on the heels
of his fundamental publications swept
away, probably irrecoverably, some of
the elements of his conceptions. Genetic
conceptions are coming to be more and
more physiological; and it is a logical
necessity that analysis should continue
to proceed in this direction. Biologists
generally have discarded the Weisman-
nian notion of living independent en-
tities (determiners) in the germ-plasm,
representative of entire unit characters,
and have replaced it by the conception
195
of differential (chemical) factors located
in the germ-plasm and interacting with
other factors (or chemical substances)
in the cell. But when we effect such a
change of conceptions, fundamental as
it may be, we still deal to a considerable
extent with those phenomena of the
chromosomes whose significance Weis-
mann did so much to make plain. Simi-
larly we can no longer deal with the
development of the individual in terms
of qualitative nuclear analysis as Weis-
mann did, for it has been proved that the
cytoplasm has a predominant determin-
ing influence in many of the phenomena
at least, and it has not been proved that
nuclei in general grow qualitatively dif-
ferent. However, it must be realized
that Weismann’s precise formulation of
his theory of individual development
furnished the stimulus for some of the
fundamental investigations that have
made real advances in this difficult field.
I think it is fair to say that Weismann
played as important a part in the devel-
opment of a theory of heredity as Dar-
win did in the theory of evolution in
general; he must, therefore, be regarded
as among the greatest of Darwin’s fol-
lowers and supporters. The biological
world must forever hold his memory in
reverence.
MORGAN’S “HEREDITY AND SEX”:
A REVIEW
By E. G. Conklin
HIS book is the outgrowth of the
Jesup Lectures for 1913 which were
given by Professor Morgan at the
American Museum of Natural His-
tory. It is a very difficult thing to make a
book interesting to the general public and
at the same time valuable to scientific
readers, but this difficult task Dr. Morgan
has accomplished in an admirable manner.
His book is a work of extraordinary interest
to the intelligent layman and at the same
time one of great value to professional biol-
ogists, and its wide success is attested by
the fact that the first edition was exhausted
and a new one issued within a year.
The book embodies the results of a large
amount of research work by Dr. Morgan and
his pupils as well as by many other investi-
gators. The subjects dealt with in the eight
chapters are: Evolution and Sex; The
Mechanism of Sex Determination; The
Mendelian Principles of Heredity and their
Bearing on Sex; Secondary Sexual Characters
and their Relation to Darwin’s Theory of
Sexual Selection; The Effects of Castration
and Transplantation on the Secondary
Sexual Characters; | Gynandromorphism,
Hermaphroditism, Parthenogenesis and Sex;
Fertility, and Special Cases of Sex Inherit-
ance. Hach of these general topics is dealt
with in a manner which is not only instructive
but also illuminating and interesting. As to
the “Evolution of Sex’”’ it is shown that we
know actually nothing about the manner in
which sex has come to be. Sexual reproduc-
tion brings about many new combinations of
characters but such recombinations do not
furnish the materials for evolution as Weis-
mann assumed. However these new com-
binations of ancestral characters produce a
ereat amount of individual variation and this
may be beneficial to a species in helping it to
survive. Furthermore if a new character
arises in a single individual it may be grafted
on, as it were, to the species by sexual re-
production.
1 HprReDITY AND Sex, by Thomas Hunt Mor-
gan, Ph.D. Professor of Experimental Zo6logy in
Columbia University, pp. ix + 292 with i121 illus-
trations in the text. Columbia University Press:
New York, 1913. Revised Edition, 1914.
194
There is an interesting discussion of the
various types of accessory organs of repro-
duction which serve to bring the spermatozoa
and ova together and of the secondary sexual
characters which distinguish males and
females such as brilliant colors, instincts and
behavior in courtship. “In man courtship
may be an involved affair.... Nowhere in
the animal kingdom do we find such a mighty
display; and clothes as ornaments excel the
most elaborate developments of secondary
sexual characters of creatures lower in the
scale.’
With remarkable clearness and brevity the
author presents the facts of the complicated
structure of the germ-cells, their origin,
maturation, union in fertilization, the way
in which sex is determined and the mechanism
of hereditary transmission. He accepts un-
reservedly the view that sex is determined
at the time of fertilization; if the egg is
fertilized by one type of spermatozo6n a male
is produced, if by the other type a female
results. He also holds that the evidence is
“almost convincing in favor of the view that
the chromosomes are the essential bearers
of the hereditary qualities.” In favor of
the chromosomal theory of heredity he pre-
sents evidences drawn from cytology, from
experiment and from sex-linked inheritance.
The latter is a type of inheritance, first clearly
distinguished by Morgan, in which characters
are transmitted to male or female offspring
in exactly the way in which certain chromo-
somes are transmitted. On the other hand
in sex-limited inheritance “the secondary
sexual characters appear in one sex only and
are not transferable to the other sex without
an operation.”
After discussing the principles of inherit-
ance discovered by Mendel the author
presents the results of his own work on the
inheritance of sex-linked characters in the
fruit fly. This is perhaps the most important
part of this book, as it is one of the most
valuable contributions to the study of hered-
ity which has been made in recent years.
The author concludes “‘that when inheritance
factors lie in different chromosomes they
freely assort and give the Mendelian expecta-
tion; but when they lie in the same chromo-
CROCKER LAND EXPEDITION
some they may be said to be linked and they
give departures from the Mendelian ratios.”
Inasmuch as factors which usually le in
different chromosomes may sometimes come
to lie in the same chromosome, Morgan has
suggested that when the maternal and pater-
nal chromosomes pair in the maturation
stages of the egg or spermatozo6n, the chro-
mosomes of each pair may actually fuse at
certain pots where they cross each other
and thus portions of the chromosomes with
their factors exchange places. With this
interesting hypothesis as a basis he has been
able by means of his breeding experiments
with fruit flies to plot the location of particu-
lar inheritance factors in individual chro-
mosomes. This work, although in many re-
spects hypothetical, is well supported by
evidence and it is probably the most impor-
tant work ever done on the ‘‘architecture of
the germ-plasm.”
A large number of cases are presented in
which the sexes differ in color, form or habit
and the inadequacy of Darwin’s theory of
sexual selection to account for these second-
ary sexual characters is generally admitted.
Similarly it is shown that the selection of
continuous variations, or of what might
better be called non-inherited variations, is
of no evolutionary significance. Even in
the case of discontinuous or hereditary
variations the author shows that natural
selection plays no part in the formation of
these variations.
The effects on secondary sexual characters
195
of the removal and of the transplantation of
ovaries or testes are described in the fifth
chapter and the conclusion is reached that
“the secondary sexual characters in four
great groups, viz., mammals, birds, crustacea
and insects are not on the same footing.”’
Those interesting cases in which both sexes
are united in the same individual or in which
eggs develop without being fertilized are
treated at some length in the sixth chapter,
and here as everywhere else Morgan draws
to a large extent upon his own researches.
In the chapter on fertility and sterility
many scattered and diverse observations are
summarized, though the facts cannot at
present be satisfactorily generalized or ex-
plained. The last chapter deals with special
cases of sex-inheritance, such as sex in bees,
peculiar forms of sex-linked inheritance in
fruit flies, and the sex ratios in birds, frogs
and man.
This book was written on the firimg lines,
as it were, of biological science and it deals
with many matters which are not finally
settled. It is inevitable that such a book
should encounter differences of opinion on
the part of other investigators in this field,
but the author is peculiarly happy in his
manner of presentation. He writes as one
who is convinced and yet tolerant and open-
minded. His style is brief, keen, attractive,
and best of all in a scientific work he shows a
thorough, first-hand acquaintance with the
phenomena described, and sound judgment
and good imagination in dealing with them.
NOTE ON THE CROCKER LAND EXPEDITION SHIP
By George H. Sherwood
Acting Chairman of the Committee in Charge
HE Committee in Charge of the
Crocker Land Expedition announces
that it has chartered the ‘George
B. Cluett”’ for the purpose of trans-
porting to New York the members of the ex-
pedition party which went north in 1913 on
the chartered ship ‘Diana.’ The ‘‘Cluett”’
is a three masted auxiliary schooner owned by
the Grenfell Association and used by it for
carrying hospital and food supplies from St.
Johns, Newfoundland, to the various mission
stations along the coast of Labrador. The
“‘Cluett”’ was launched on July 1, 1911, and
is one hundred and thirty-five feet over all.
She is well built and heavily timbered and
is to be “fortified”? as a further protection
against the ice before starting on her journey
northward.
The “Cluett’’ will leave Battle Harbor
about the first week in July, go directly to
Etah, there taking on board the members of
the expedition party, their collections and
equipment, and willreturn to New York some
time during September. Captain George
Comer of East Haddam, Connecticut, hasbeen
engaged by the Committee to serve as ice
196
pilot and as a Museum representative on the
ship. Captain Comer has had many years’
experience in the ice fields of Hudson Bay
and the Committee has the utmost confidence
in his ability to guide the ship safely through
the ice of Baffin Bay, land at Etah and start
on the homeward journey before the winter
ice begins to form.
The Crocker Land Expedition, as will be
remembered, was organized under the aus-
pices of the American Museum of Natural
History and the American Geographical
Society with the codperation of the Univer-
sity of Illinois. Its staff, consisting of Donald
B. MacMillan, leader and ethnologist; Fitz-
hugh Green, U.S. N., engineer and physicist;
W. Elmer Ekblaw, geologist and botanist;
Maurice C. Tanquary, zoélogist; Harrison J.
Hunt, surgeon; Jerome Lee Allen, wireless
operator; and Jonathan Small, mechanic, has
been in the Arctic for nearly two years. The
party sailed from the Brooklyn Navy Yard
on July 2, 1913, in the ‘Diana”’ and stopped
at Boston and Sydney, Nova Scotia, for addi-
tional supplies. After leaving Sydney, how-
ever, much ice was encountered in the Strait
of Belle Isle and in a dense fog on the morn-
ing of July 17, the ship went fast aground on
Barge Point, Labrador. The ‘ Diana” was
finally pulled off the rocks and returned to
St. Johns where the equipment and supplies
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
were transferred to the “Erik” in which ves-
sel the party safely continued its northward
trip. It was found necessary to make the
headquarters at Etah, North Greenland, in-
stead of on Ellesmere Land as originally
planned and it was there that the party spent
the long Arctic nights of the winter of 1913-
14.
In November of last year the Museum,
through the kindness of Mr. Knud Ras-
mussen, the Danish explorer, received word
that Mr. MacMillan accompanied by Ensign
Green had made the one hundred and twenty-
five mile dash northwest from Cape Thomas
Hubbard across the ice of the Polar Sea in
search for Crocker Land but that they had
found that Crocker Land did not exist, at
least within the range originally ascribed to it.
According to the original plans, the expedi-
tion is exploring and mapping the Greenland
ice cap this spring and will later return to
headquarters at Etah to await the coming of
the ship chartered for the return to New York.
The Committee begs to call the attention
of the friends of the expedition to the urgent
need that exists for additional funds to help
defray the cost of sending this relief ship
northward. The unfortunate wrecking of
the “Diana” with its incident expenses has
been a heavy burden and additional subscrip-
tions are earnestly desired.
MUSEUM NOTES
Tue frontispiece of this issue of the
JOURNAL is a photograph of the marble bust
of John Burroughs, naturalist and author,
made by Mr. C. S. Pietro and presented to
the Museum by Mr. Henry Ford. The bust
has been put on exhibition at an appropriate
season — April, the month of reawakening
nature and return of the birds — and in an
appropriate part of the Museum, the local
bird hall. April 3, the anniversary of the
birth of John Burroughs, has been made a
national ‘bird day”’ in Utah and was cele-
brated as a bird day for 1915°in New York
and various other states. :
A bird day bulletin to the New York public
schools, decorated with a portrait of the great
horned owl in color by Louis Agassiz Fuertes
was sent out March 25 from the State Educa-
tion Department of the University of the
State of New York. The bulletin was
prepared by the three authors of the State
Museum memoir, Birds of New York, and
is endorsed by Dr. John H. Finley in the fol-
lowing words, ‘‘If these suggestions are gener-
ally followed, the State will be made richer by
many millions and a great source of human
happiness will be kept at our doors.”
Mr. James P. CHaprin of the Museum’s
Congo Expedition, after a six years’ absence
in Africa, arrived in New York March 30 by
way of England. He brings the details of
the wonderful success of the expedition, not
only in the work of a scientific survey but also
in having lived without mishap for the’ex-
tended period of six years amidst the dangers
of the equatorial forest and among the negro
races of Central Africa—a success due in
part to the cordial coédperation of the Belgian
government. Mr. Chapin brings with him
MUSEUM NOTES
about one-fourth of the expedition’s collec-
tions. The balance remains in the hands of
Mr. Lang, leader of the expedition, who also
will come out of the Congo immediately after
the final work of packing and shipment is
completed.
The entire collection numbers some 16,000
specimens of vertebrates alone, 6000 of
which are birds and 5000 mammals. The
specimens are accompanied by some 4000
pages of descriptive matter and 6000 photo-
graphs. It includes full material and careful
studies for museum groups of the okapi, the
giant eland and white rhinoceros, besides
many specimens of lions, elephants, giraffes,
buffaloes, bongos, situtungas, yellow-backed
duikers, black forest pigs, giant manis and
chimpanzees.
The ethnological section of the collection
is rich in specimens of native art of the Congo
including several hundred objects of carved
ivory, a revelation as to the capacities of the
Congo uneducated negro. There are also
seventy plaster casts of native faces from
the Logo, Azande, Avungura, Mangbetu,
Bangba, Anadi, Abarambo, Mayoho, Ma-
budu, Medje, Mobali and Pygmy tribes.
Each cast is supplemented by a series of
photographie studies of the individual.
Mr. Chapin will take up again his zodélogi-
cal studies at Columbia University and will
retain his connection with the American
Museum as assistant in ornithology. In this
position he wiJl work up for publication the
6000 Congo birds of the new collection
which in point of preservation as well as size
and number of specimens new to the Ameri-
can Museum, surpasses any collection that
has ever been secured by the institution.
THERE is on exhibition in the west as-
sembly hall for the month of April a series of
photographic transparencies illustrating cer-
tain noteworthy features of the work of
Professor Percival Lowell and his staff at the
Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona. The series
shows, first, the Observatory, the great
24-inch telescope, and following, the spectra
of the Moon, Jupiter and other planets. Of
special interest are the photographs showing
various aspects of Mars, including the much
discussed “canal system.’’ These are sup-
plemented by drawings by Professor Lowell
which illustrate the vegetation on Mars and
the condition of the snow-caps at the north
and south poles. Perhaps the most striking
of the series is the large photograph of
197
Halley’s Comet, which includes not only the
comet itself, but the stars drawn into lines
on account of following the comet with the
camera, the planet Venus, and lastly a meteor
which chanced to pass directly across the
plate during the exposure.
Photographs of the Moon show the craters
and the shadows of the great crater walls
which rise almost vertically 10,000 to 15,000
feet. As the transparencies are brilliantly
illuminated in a darkened room, it gives the
effect of looking at the sky itself.
“Ortain and Meaning of some Funda-
mental Earth Structures’ was the subject
recently discussed by Professor Charles P.
Berkey of Columbia University in the Jesup
lectures for 1915. The course consisted of
eight lectures and opened with a discussion
of the origin and nature of the earth. The
nebular and meteoric hypotheses of the
origin of the earth were contrasted with the
later and now widely accepted view that the
earth has been built up by the slow accretion
of planetesimals, or fragments of a disrupted
sun that was the parent of the whole solar
system.
Reasons for the existence of elevated areas
and basin-like depressions, namely of the
continents and oceans, were discussed; these
elevations and depressions and the move-
ments of the earth’s crust were all traced
back to gravitational forces, which were
manifested in earthquakes, volcanic eruptions,
mountain-forming uplifts, and submergences,
all due eventually to the balancing of conti-
nents and oceans against each other (isostasy).
The place and work of volcanic activity and
the agencies and forces involved in the
metamorphosis of rocks were treated, with
constant reference to rock structure and to the
cycles of transformation from sedimentary
to metamorphic and igneous structures and
the reverse. All this was finally applied to
the interpretation of local geology and to
such practical matters as foundation work,
tunneling work, water supply and the quali-
ties of structural material.
The Jesup lectures, which are Columbia
University lectures given in codperation with
-the American Museum, form an important
medium for the presentation in concise form
of scientific progress. The first course of
the series was given by Professor Henry
Fairfield Osborn in 1907, his subject being
the “Evolution of the Horse.” In the
second series (1909) Professor Richard C.
198
Maclaurin presented ‘‘Newton’s Experi-
ments and Contributions to Optical Theory.”
In 1911 Professor Frederic 8. Lee lectured on
“Seientific Features of Modern Medicine,”
and in 1913, Professor T. H. Morgan sum-
marized recent advances in the study of
“Heredity and Sex.’ The Jesup lectures
are being published by the Columbia Univer-
sity Press.
Since the last issue of the JouRNAL the
following persons have become members of
the Museum:
Annual Members, Mrs. FrepEertc N. Gop-
parRbD, Mrs. Everard B. Hopwoop, Mrs.
C. D. Jackson, Mrs. Samuren W. Wetss, the
Misses Leia S. Frissett, MArcaret W.
Watson, His ExceLnuency, IRA NELSON
Morris, Dr. Herrmann FISCHER AND
Mrssrs. LatHroe Brown, G. E. CHAPrin,
J. WARREN CuTLER, ALBERT DE Roope,
SamuEL JACKSON, RosperT E. NOLKER,
Emit T. PALMENBERG, FRANK H. PARSONS,
WILLARD ScuDDER AND IF. B. WrpBora.
“Men of the Old Stone Age’’ was the topic
at the April 12th meeting of the Academy of
Sciences. Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn
presented some of the chief results of his
synthetic work on this subject and made
special acknowledgments of the codperation
of the following archeologists, anatomists
and geologists: Messieurs Abbé Breuil,
Cartailhaec, Obermaier, MacCurdy, Nelson,
MacGregor, Starr, Penck, Reeds. He exhib-
ited a chart illustrating the successive ad-
vances and retreats of the glacial ice in
Europe and the corresponding succession of
mammalian faunas and races of man. — Illus-
trations of the skeletal remains of the palso-
lithic races were then passed in review.
Professor J. Howard MacGregor then
exhibited his remarkably lifelike and accu-
rate series of busts of prehistoric men. He
explained the methods adopted in building
up corrected models of the skulls, from casts
of the imperfect original specimens, and in
restoring the flesh, from data secured by
dissection of recent types. Dr. A. Hrdlicka,
formerly of this Museum and now of the
National Museum, was present and took
part in the discussion.
ADMIRAL PEARy’s Arctic ship, the ‘‘ Roose-
velt,”’ has been sold and after it has been
fitted with oil-burning machinery and other
improvements, will be used by the Bureau
of Fisheries in the Department of Commerce
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
and Labor in connection with the fisheries
service in Alaskan waters. The “Roosevelt”
was the ship used by Admiral Peary on the
expeditions in which he reached the “farthest
north”? record in 1906 and the North Pole
in 1909, and was built expressly for the pur-
pose in the spring of 1905. It is to be remem-
bered that Apri) 6 marks the sixth anni-
versary of the discovery of the North Pole.
A LIFE-sIzE model of the beautiful Portu-
guese man-of-war (Physalia arethusa), a
remarkable product of the glass-blower’s
and colorist’s skill, has recently been installed
in the Darwin hall. The Portuguese man-of-
war is not a single animal as might be sup-
posed from its appearance, but a colony of
animals in which the phenomenon of division
of labor is most strikingly exemplified. One
of the individuals in the colony is specialized
to act as a float. The other individuals are
attached to it, pendant from the lower surface.
Some of them have mouths and feed for the
entire colony; others are sensory in function
and have no mouths; still others are armed
with rows of stinging cells and form the
offensive and defensive members of the
colony; and still others can neither feed nor
fight but are the reproductive individuals.
The colony as a whole, the “ Portuguese
man-of-war,”’ floats on the surface of the sea,
especially in warmer regions, but is often
brought north upon the Gulf Stream and
drifts in upon the New England coast. Cer-
tain of the individuals making up the colony,
those armed with the most powerful stinging
cells, extend as long retractile streamers into
the depths of the sea, at times to a length of
forty feet. These also act as a drag anchor
and keep the head of the float to wind-
ward. The coloration of the animal is strik-
ingly beautiful, varying from deep cerulean
blue through deepest purple to brilliant car-
mine. In the West Indies it is often seen
floating in large squadrons on the sea.
Apropos of the ever-widening scope of the
lecture work which is being carried on by the
Museum’s department of education, it is
interesting to note that a course similar to
the Museum’s Saturday morning stories
for the children of members was inaugurated
this year in Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. George
H. Sherwood gave the introductory lecture of
the series which included lectures by Mr. R.
W. Miner, Mr. R. C. Andrews, Mr. Ernest
Harold Baynes and Mr. Albert H. Pratt,
of
himotori, colorist,
s.s
and Mr.
that floats at the surface of warm seas.
’
Ge
pe ae aw eee ~ wre
Se ee oe - “
a ne EN hs page BE
— eet
ai ai Se ae
in co 4
’
glass blower
’
oe pe ~~ ieee sgh pts ——<
/
MODEL OF THE PORTUGUESE MAN-OF—WAR
H. Miiller
Preparation of model by Mr.
An animal, or more exactly speaking, a colony of animals
The transparent ‘‘float,’’ blue, purple and crimson tinted, sails before the wind, trailing long retractile
filaments.
Model on exhibition in the Darwin hall
the American Museum
00 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Tue Hopi Indian group in the Southwest
Indian hall has been completed and is now
open to the public for mspection. This
group aims to present a unified complete
picture of pueblo life as illustrated in the
home and industrial life of the Hopi Indians.
The foreground is the roof of a Hopi dwelling,
which is the center of daily life for the Hopi
home. Here are shown life-size character-
istic figures of Hopi men and women at their
respective occupations: the men spinning and
weaving, the women making baskets and pot-
tery. In the background is the village of
Walpi, on the end of the first Hopi mesa,
with the village of Sichumovi in the distance.
The group was designed and executed by
Howard McCormick, an artist already dis-
tinguished for his paintings of scenes of the
Southwest, and the figures were modeled by
Mahonri M. Young, who codperated with
Mr. McCormick in the planning of the group.
It is the first anthropological group con-
structed by the Museum at all comparable to
the bird groups for which the institution has
become famous, and marks the turning point
in the development of the anthropological
exhibits.
An opening view of the Hopi group was
given to friends of the Museum on April 8
and was preceded by an exhibit of motion
pictures taken by Mr. McCormick illustrat-
ing many phases of Hopi life which are
represented in the group.
Worp has been received from Mr. H. E.
Anthony, who is making a collection of birds
and mammals for the Museum in Panama,
that on February 21, he reached the base of
Mount Tacarcuna in eastern Panama where
he is favorably situated for the projected
explorations to Mount Tacarcuna.
Earty in the spring of 1914 Lord William
Perey of Northumberland, England, under
the auspices of the American Museum, joined
the revenue cutter “‘Bear”’ on an expedition
to the coasts of Alaska and Siberia for the
purpose of securing water birds and especially
Visher’s eiderduck. While Lord Perey was
still in Alaska the ‘‘Bear” chanced to take
by wireless a message which gave the news
of the war. Lord Perey, who is a reserve
member of the Grenadier Guards, left the
ship immediately, made arrangements for
transportation to Seattle and arrived in New
York about a month afterward, and from
there sailed immediately to join his regiment
at the front. Since that time occasional
letters with personal facts of the war have
come to New York. He was in France for
four months. At one time the English
troops were stationed only one hundred yards
from those of the Germans and as he ex-
pressed it, ‘‘For us the war consists of shell-
ing and shooting at the Germans all day and
all night and of being shot at and shelled by
them. It is not a very attractive\form of
warfare.’ A short time ago Lord Percy’s
friends in the Museum learned that he had
been wounded and had lain for several hours
in a shell-hole before he received medical
attention. We are glad to learn that his
wound, although serious, will probably admit
of an early recovery.
MopE ts have recently been installed in the
hall of public health illustrating how the
mosquitoes which transmit diseases are con-
trolled upon the Isthmus of Panama. One
model is a street scene which shows a disin-
fecting squad at work destroying yellow fever
in the houses where the disease has occurred.
A second model illustrates the burning of
grass and the oiling of ditches to destroy
malaria mosquitoes in open country.
Mr. Leo E. Miniter writes from South
America that he has completed his work in
Antioquia and on March 30 sailed from
Barranquilla to Colon en route to Bolivia,
where it is proposed to inaugurate a zodlogical
survey similar to that which the Museum has
conducted in Colombia for the past five years.
Mr. Miller’s collections amounting to two
thousand birds and mammals have been re-
ceived and make an exceedingly important
addition to the Museum’s Colombian collec-
tions.
Tue Librarian would be glad to receive
back numbers of the JouRNAL, even those of
quite recent date, as they are frequently
asked for by libraries and other institutions
desiring to complete volumes.
THE government of Porto Rico has made
the second annual appropriation of five
thousand dollars for the continuance of the
scientific survey of the island under the
auspices of the New York Academy of Sciences
in codperation with the American Museum
and other institutions. Several members of
the Museum staff will be engaged in this work
during the coming months.
The American Museum of Natural History
Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City
Open free to the public on every day in the year.
The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the
Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people.
It is dependent
upon private subscriptions and the fees from members for procuring needed additions to the
collections and for carrying on explorations in America and other parts of the world The
membership fees are,
Amuso tViem bers: < «,. vs. seas alelesiee oe-5 $ 10
Sustaining Members (annually)........ 25
Mrhem Viemb eran ai. takots acc aletouelk aa stieee ss 100
eto eee erevotocte othe, hens oy -.eueiousuere sh 500
PATRONS Se serepeectheceho cen yater ee heir ten ote $1,000
Associate Benefactors............... 10,000
Associate: Hounders. <2: .....0d. coe 25,000
IBenetactorst vtec ies Gooscec aleuneee 50,900
Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request to members and teachers by the
department of public education.
Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone
the department for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied. Lectures to
classes may also be arranged for.
of children.
In all cases the best results are obtained with small groups
The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working collection
of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and abroad.
The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays excepted —
from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.
The Technical Publications of the Museum comprise the Memoirs, Bulletin and
Anthropological Papers, the Memoirs and Bulletin edited by J. A. Allen, the Anthropological
Papers by Clark Wissler.
the institution.
These publications cover the field and laboratory researches of
The Popular Publications of the Museum comprise the JourNAtL, edited by Mary
Cynthia Dickerson, the Handbooks, Leaflets and General Guide.
The following list gives
some of the popular publications; complete lists, of both technical and popular publications,
may be obtained from the Librarian.
POPULAR PUBLICATIONS
HANDBOOKS
Norra AMERICAN INDIANS OF THE Piatns. By Clark
Wissler, Ph.D. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.
INDIANS OF THE SouTHWEST. By Pliny Earle Goddard,
Ph.D. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.
ANIMALS OF THE Past. By Frederic A. Lucas, Sc.D.
Paper, 35 cents.
ILLUSTRATED GUIDE LEAFLETS
GENERAL GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS.
issued December, 1914. Price, 25 cents.
Tue CoLLection or Minerats. By Louis P. Grata-
cap, A.M. Price, 5 cents.
Nortu AMERICAN RUMINANTS.
Price, 10 cents.
THe ANncreENT Basket MAKERS OF SOUTHEASTERN
Uran. By George H. Pepper. Price, 10 cents.
Primitive Arr. Price, 15 cents.
Tue Birbs oF THE Vicinity oF New York City. By
Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D. Price, 15 cents.
Peruvian Mummies. By Charles W. Mead. Price,
10 cents.
Tue METEORITES IN THE FOYER OF THE AMERICAN
Museum or Natrurau Hisrory. By Edmund Otis
Hovey, Ph.D. Price, 10 cents.
Tue Hasirat Grours or Norta AMERICAN Birps.
By Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D. Price, 15 cents.
New edition
By J. A. Allen, Ph.D.
Tue InpraAns oF Mannartran Istanp anp VICINITY.
By Alanson Skinner. Jn preparation.
Tue Stokes PAINTINGS REPRESENTING GREENLAND
Eskimo. Price, 5 cents.
Brier History oF ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.
10 cents.
Trees AND Forestry. By Mary Cynthia Dickerson,
B.S. A new edition in course of preparation.
Tue Protection oF RivER AND HARBOR WATERS FROM
MonicipaL_ Wastes. By Charles-Edward Amory
Winslow, M.S. Price, 10 cents.
Piant Forms In Wax. By E. C. B. Fassett.
10 cents.
Tue Evoturion or THE Horse.
Ph.D. Price, 20 cents.
Price,
Price,
By W. D. Matthew,
REPRINTS
Tue GrounpD SitotH Group. By W. D. Matthew,
Ph.D. Price, 5 cents.
MetuHops AND RESULTS IN HERPETOLOGY.
Cynthia Dickerson, B.S. Price, 5 cents.
Tue Wauarr Pitre Grove. By Roy W. Miner, A.B.
Price, 5 cents.
Tue SEA Worm Group.
Price, 10 cents.
Tue ANCESTRY OF THE EDENTATES.
thew, Ph.D. Price, 5 cents.
By Mary
By Roy W. Miner, A.B.
By W. D. Mat-
the wild apple tree.
A red squirrel eagerly watching the toads from the stone wall behind
He is fond of a taste of meat in the spring after his
winter on nuts and seeds.
(From the Toad Group in the American
Museum)
PHOTOGRAPHS OF STARS
AND PLANETS
EUROPEAN CAVES A
ND
EARLY MAN
yr
»
‘ ee”
A GREAT PORTRAIT PAINTER
OF BIRDS
PENGUINS
“JOHNNY
PISHES HAT LIVE MILES
UNDER SEA
The American Museum of Natural History
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
President
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
First Vice-President
CLEVELAND H. DopGE
Treasurer Secretary
CHARLES LANIER ADRIAN ISELIN, JR.
JoHN Purroy MitcuHert, Mayor or tue City or New York
Witu1AmM A. PRENDERGAST, COMPTROLLER OF THE City or NEw YORK
Casot Warp, PRESIDENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
Second Vice-President
J. P. MorGan
GeorcE F. BAKER
FREDERICK F. BREWSTER
JosepH H. CHOATE
R. Fuitron Curtina
Tuomas DEWITT CuYLEeR
JAMES DouGLAsS ;
Henry C. Frick
Mapison GRANT
Anson W. Harp
ArcHER M. HuNnTINGTON
ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES
Wa.ter B. JAMES
SetH Low
OGpEN MILLs
Percy R. PYne
Joun B. TREVOR
Fetrx M. Warsura
GeorGE W. WICKERSHAM
A. D. JUILLIARD
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS
Director
Freperic A. Lucas
Assistant Treasurer
Tue UNITED StaTEs Trust CoMPANY
Assistant Secretary
GeorGE H. SHERWOOD
oF New York
SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Freperic A. Lucas, Se.D., Director
Geology and Invertebrate Paleontology
Epmounp Oris Hovey, Ph.D., Curator
Cuester A. Reeps, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Mineralogy
L. P. Gratacap, A.M., Curator
GerorG_E F, Kunz, Ph.D., Honorary Curator Gems
Woods and Forestry
Mary Cyrnrara Dickerson, B.S., Curator
Invertebrate Zodlogy
Henry E. Crampton, Ph.D., Curator
Roy W. Miner, A.B., Asst. Curator
Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
L. P. Gratacap, A.M., Curator Mollusca
A. J. Murtcuuer, Assistant
Frank E. Watson, B.S., Assistant
W. M. WaeeE ter, Ph.D., Hon. Curator Social
Insects
A. L. TREADWELL, Ph.D., Hon. Curator Annulata
CHARLES W. Lena, B.S., Hon. Curator Coleoptera
Ichthyology and Herpetology
Basurorp Dean, Ph.D., Curator Emeritus
Louis Hussaxor, Ph.D., Curator Ichthyology
Joun T. Nicuous, A.B., Asst. Cur. Recent Fishes
Mary Cynruia Dickerson, B.S., Assoc. Curator
Herpetology
Mammalogy and Ornithology
J. A. AuLEN, Ph.D., Curator
Frank M. Cuapman, Sc.D., Curator Ornithology
Roy C. Anprews, A.M., Asst. Cur. Mammalogy
W. DeW. Miter, Asst. Curator Ornithology
H. E. Anruony, B.S., Assistant Mammalogy
Herpert Lane, Assistant Mammalogy
James P. Cuapin, Assistant Ornithology
Vertebrate Paleontology
Henry FairFiELD Ossorn, LL.D., D.Sc., Curator
Emeritus
W. D. Martruew, Ph.D., Curator
WaALTER GRANGER, Assoc. Curator [Mammals]
Barnum Brown, A.B., Assoc. Curator [Reptiles]
Wituiam K. Gregory, Ph.D., Assoc. in Palz#on-
tology
Anthropology
CuiarRK WissuerR, Ph.D., Curator
Puiny E. Gopparp, Ph.D., Curator Ethnology
Rosert H. Lowiz, Ph.D., Assoc. Curator
HeRBERT J. SPINDEN, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Nets C. Netson, M.L., Asst. Curator
CuarRLes W. Moeap, Asst. Curator
ALANSON SKINNER, Asst. Curator
Harwuan I. Smitu, Hon. Curator Archeology
Anatomy and Physiology
Rautpex W. Tower, Ph.D., Curator
Public Health
CHARLES-Epwarp A. Winstow, M.S., Curator
IsraEL J. Kuicuer, B.S., Assistant
Public Education
Gerorce H. SHerwoop, A.M., Curator
G. Ciype FisHer, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Ann E. Tuomas, Ph.B., Assistant
Books and Publications
Rauteu W. Tower, Ph.D., Curator
Ipa RicHarpson Hoop, A.B., Asst. Librarian
THe American Museum Journac
VoLUME XV MAY, 1915 NUMBER 5
CONTENTS
Cover, “The White Gyrfalcon’”’ From a painting by Louis Agassiz Fuertes
_ > ERP SO ak SES ln SEIRBAR E Rae o R ma ne el BN ate Menge ie, RN UP OnE A Ph Sy It 202
Wixiiam T. Hornavpay, Director of the Zodlogical Park of the New York Zodlogical
Society and advocate of wild animal protection
Hereert Lana, Leader of the Congo expedition of the American Museum
James P. Cuapin, recently returned to America after six years field study in the Congo
Lovis AGassiz FuERTES, portrait painter of birds.
Frontispiece, Johnny Penguins Climbing to the Rookery.................... 206
Scene photographed in the Antarctic by Robert Cushman Murphy
Sec, ies Warer on Mans 2 fore On. s ie Ses ek ay PercivaL LOWELL 207
Observations, direct photographs and spectrograms made through a long period of years at the
Flagstaff Observatory, tending to prove the presence on Mars of oxygen and water vapor,
the two great requisites for life
ieee MMO erton I. AStFODOMY so O26 05 6 teva lage ee E. C. SLIpHER 211
Illustrated with a series of remarkable direct photographs and spectrograms of celestial bodies
Louis Agassiz Fuertes — Painter of Bird Portraits...... FranK M. CHAPMAN 221
With an insert in duotone from photographs of eight of Fuertes’ bird portraits and decorative
panels
The Penguins of South Georgia.................. RoBerT CusHMAN Murpuy 225
’
A close study of the life history and habits of the ‘‘Johnnies,’’ with many illustrations from
photographs by Mr. Murphy — The article will be continued in the October JourNaAL, in the
story of a friendly acquaintance with the *‘kings”’
Ruropesas Caves and Harly Man...) 220. an 21 ene © oes oes N. C. NELson 237
Description of a visit to the shelters and painted caves of Europe, with a view to reproduction
in the American Museum of one of these antique haunts of man
Rees rae DCS ea ORs kos ae sates hey Cilmy aa oe cee: L. Hussakor 249
Volcanoes of the Lesser Antilles................-.... Epmunp Oris Hovey 254
(Grannd- sloth froma Gave im. Patagonia... 22.3... 20. sas W. D. MatrHew 256
aomaikon Dance ab. ciGhumMoVl. :\. 22-4. . net. eee do F.S. DELLENBAUGH 256
Lalrsairee teh ay PSS ie Bis Mt A eae icy URE rhs Rene Aber) AL ieee ube ee Aen er 20. ahge 258
Mary Cyrntuia Dickerson, Editor
Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History, at the
Cosmos Press, Cambridge, Mass. Terms: one dollar and a half per year, twenty cents per copy.
Entered as second-class matter January 12, 1907, at the Post-Office at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress,
July 16, 1894.
Subscriptions should be addressed to the AmericAN Museum JourNAL, 77th St. and
Central Park West, New York City.
The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum.
WILLIAM T. HORNADAY
The Director of the Zodlogical Park of the New York Zodlogical Society has no doubt
inaugurated and carried to success more movements for the protection of wild animal life
than has any other man in America. We owe to him the Wichita and Montana national
bison herds, Elk River Game Preserve of British Columbia, and Snow Creek Game
Preserve of Montana. He drafted the Bayne Law which since 1912 has prevented the
sale of native wild game, as well as the law which since 1913 has prevented all impor-
tation of wild birds’ plumage for milliners’ use. His name is connected also with saving
the fur-seal industry. As to his effort to put such protective work on a permanent finan-
cial basis for the future, see further mention on page 260
202
HERBERT LANG
Mr. Lang, as leader for the past six years of the American Museum’s expedi-
tion to the Belgian Congo, has traveled some three thousand miles under an equa-
torial sun, and for the most part with heavily loaded caravans, to accomplish the
remarkable success achieved in the collection of zodlogical specimens and study of
Congo native tribes. Mr. Lang still remains in Africa to attend to the final pack-
ing and shipment of specimens
(This photograph of Mr. Lang was made before he sailed for Africa six years ago]
JAMES P. CHAPIN
Mr. Chapin has returned to New York after six years of tramping through African jungles
as a member of the Congo expedition of the American Museum, during which time he secured
the largest and most valuable collection of Congo birds ever brought together
[Mr. Chapin will contribute to the next number of the Journat an article on his experi-
ences in collecting birds in Africa]
LOUIS AGASSIZ FUERTES
A portrait painter of wild birds who bases his work on an intimate sympathetic study of the
subject in nature and succeeds in portraying the character of the bird in addition to its external
appearance. He is an illustrator of technical and popular books as well as a painter of
decorative canvases of considerable size
JOHNNY PENGUINS CLIMBING TO THE ROOKERY
make their homes on the summits of the windy shelterless ridges and trudge gravely
Broad beaten thoroughfares show the effect of the
The Johnnies
back and forth to the sea where they get their food.
pattering of little leathery feet through many generations
—‘ The Penguins of South Georgia,’ page 225
206
THe American Museum Journal
VoLuME XV
MAY, 1915
NuMBER 5
OXYGEN AND WATER ON MARS
By Percival Lowell
Director of the Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona
EXT to the photographs of the
canals of Mars, perhaps the most
vitally interesting photograph
in the recent work of the Lowell Observa-
tory is a spectrogram of Mars by Dr. Y.
M. Slipher, disclosing to the average ob-
server merely a darkening of one of the
spectral lines (a) to the red end of this
spectrum over the same line in the col-
lateral spectrum of the moon. But to
scientific insight this bit of glass is other-
wise transparent. For the slight differ-
ence in tone between these identically
positioned lines in the two photographs
means all the difference between life
and death. It reveals the fact that
water-vapor is present in the atmos-
phere of Mars. The moon, an almost
absolutely airless body, delivers us the
sun’s rays unaffectedly and the absorp-
tion line in question in its spectrum
is caused by water-vapor in our own air.
Indeed the spectrum of the moon is
simply the spectrum of the sun plus
that of the earth, the moon acting only
the self-effacmg part of a mirror. But
in the Martian spectrum the sun’s rays
have passed in addition through that
planet’s air and in so doing reveal of
what it stands composed. The empha-
sis it lays upon this line indicates that
water, without which all life, vegetal or
animal, is impossible, exists upon our
neighbor, even as it does here.
Nor is this all that this spectrogram dis-
closes. In the able hands of Professor F.
W. Very, measurements of the intensity
of another line (B) have revealed the
presence of oxygen too, in that other
world. Here then we have demonstra-
tion that both of the chief substances
necessary to life are present on Mars.
This evidence was obtained several
years ago at a most propitious time, be-
cause at the time and place when the
earth’s air happened to be particularly
dry, thus permitting of accentuated
contrast. In addition to this however,
spectrograms taken by Dr. Slipher more
recently, have added to it in an unlooked-
for way. Our air, on this latter occasion,
was unavoidably more moisture-laden
and little was hoped for from the spec-
trograms beyond a faint corroboration
of previous results. When behold, not
only did measurement of intensities dis-
close both water-vapor and oxygen on
Mars as before, but these intensities were
such as fitted the changed terrestrial
conditions, thus adding to qualitative
proof, quantitative proof as well. And
both fitted in with the Martian meteor-
ology which visual study of that planet
has shown us must exist.
Even this is not the limit of the infor-
mation conveyed by these communi-
eative lines. In Dr. Slipher’s latest
results, four plates were taken so varied
that in two the air above the equatorial
regions of Mars was examined, in two
207
THE GREAT REFRACTINC TELESCOPE, LOWELL OBSERVATORY
This is well known because of the perfection of its great lens and because of the important dis-
coveries made through its use, concerning Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and other planets, the stars,
comets and nebule. Constructed by Alvan Clark and Sons, Cambridgeport, Massachusetts
208
OXYGEN AND WATER ON MARS
others the polar atmosphere. The polar
snow-cap was then in process of melting
and the plates showed that the band
in the Martian spectrum, denoting
water-vapor, had been intensified sev-
enty per cent in the planet’s polar regions
and but sixteen per cent in the equa-
torial over what the band showed in
our own. Furthermore, Professor Very
remarks about one of the polar plates
“there is a brighter streak of continu-
ous spectrum, corresponding to a region
of melting snow or of clouds, which gives
a larger intensification of a (the water-
vapor band) than the associated dark
streak, when these are measured sepa-
rately. The diversity of intensification
appertains to a_ exclusively —a_ has
changed by nearly fifty per cent and this
change is certainly Martian.”’ He con-
cludes by saying with regard to oxygen
that with the higher altitude of Mars in
209
the later results, the oxygen interposed
by the earth’s atmosphere being less by
one-half an atmosphere, he found the
fifteen per cent due to Mars in his earlier
measures increased to twenty-four per
cent in his later ones, “proving again
that this apparent intensification is also
real, and is truly Martian, and indicat-
ing that the actual amount of oxygen
in the Martian atmosphere is about half
as great as upon the earth.” ~
Surprising as have been the disclosures
due to spectroscopy, perhaps none is
greater than that that instrument should
inform us of the possibility of life upon
another world, a_ possibility, which,
combined with facts that visual observa-
tion has revealed (size, mass, tempera-
ture and lastly details of the canal-oasis
system), amounts, viewed in the light of
the doctrine of probabilities, to practical
certainty of its existence there.
Mars
Moon
che, Ree?
Moon
is 4 D Ca BY een
Photo by Dr. V. M. Slipher
Spectra of Mars and the moon. The band marked a, well on the right of the spectra, is the
band of water-vapor. In the case of the moon the light has traveled only through our own atmosphere,
and in that of Mars through the Martian and our own. The difference in darkness shows that water-
vapor exists in the atmosphere of Mars. This spectrogram shows also that oxygen exists on Mars, by
comparing the line B, oxygen, with C, hydrogen, in the sun for relative intensities. Its presence was
found by very careful measurements by Professor Very with his devised comparator, at the time he
evaluated the amount of water-vapor in the Martian air
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Saturn, photographed by Dr. Lowell, March 12, 1915, showing the ring open to its widest extent
THE PHOTOGRAPH IN ASTRONOMY
By E. C. Slipher?
Lowell Observatory,
URING the last two decades the
application of photography to
researches in astronomy and
in other sciences as well, has been fraught
with advances.
Through its use in astronomy we have
facts
numerous important
learned many new which have
confirmed or refuted the old theories
and created new scientific belief; and
furthermore photography furnishes per-
manent pictorial record of the evidence,
accurate and incontestable, that all may
see and believe. No argument carries
a conviction equal to that gained by
seeing the thing oneself.
Excellent photographs of the great
planet Jupiter have been made through
the 24-inch refracting telescope of the
Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona.
They show at a glance the conspicuous
belted appearance of the visible surface—
probably the zoned formation of the vari-
ous gases of a very dense atmosphere
beneath which we seldom if ever see —
and innumerable, finer, wisplike mark-
1 Mr. E. C. Slipher has been directly associated
with Dr. Lowell in his work on Mars at the Flag-
staff Observatory for many years. He has gone
also on various expeditions, among them one to
Alianza, Chile, in 1907, to observe Mars.
Flagstaff, Arizona
ings interlacing the belts. Photographs
of the planet showing different longitudes
present a varied aspect of these belts,
and the photographs taken in different
years indicate many evident chaotic
changes there.
Across the ball of the planet Saturn
there will be noted in the photographs
quite similar although less pronounced
beltlike markings paralleling the equator;
this indicates a like condition of the
atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn.
The unique rings about Saturn are re-
markably well shown in_ photographs,
with Cassini’s division distinetly visible
all the way around, separating the two
brighter rings. The third and inner ring
—the filmy crépe ring —is too faint
to show except where it crosses the
ball, without an overexposure, although
much of the original definition is lost
in the enlarged reproductions due to
the separation of the silver grains of the
emulsion. It will be seen that the ball
of Saturn shines through the outer ring
where it crosses the planet on the lower
side; this tells how ‘very thin the rings
are and evinces their meteoric constitu-
tion. The definition of these planetary
211
senting a direct demon-
stration of the fact first
found mathematically,
that the ring system is
composed of disjoined
particles. In the spec-
trum of the planet Ve-
nus the absence of in-
clination of the lines
shows its diurnal rota-
tion to be exceedingly
slow, which confirms
the early observations
of Schiaparelli and Dr.
Lowell who found its
day and year to be
Jupiter, September 23, 1914. To the left of the planet is seen a Bs ,
small round bright spot against the sky. This is Satellite Ill. It has equal. This causes Ve-
just crossed the face of the planet. On the extreme right of this face nus to present always
(the left of the photograph) is its shadow just entering on the disk. h
It denotes an eclipse of the sun taking place for Jupiter at that point. the same face to the
Some distance to the right of the planet is shown another round bright sun. The d ay ot
spot. This is Satellite I, soon to transit the disk and cause another if :
solar eclipse. This plate, securing both planet and satellites on such a Uranus was unknown,
scale and definition, is, as far as known, unique
photographs where exposures of as
much as thirty seconds were required,
attest to the exceptional atmospheric
conditions existing at Flagstaff.
Although less picturesque than the
direct photographs, the spectrographic
observations are just. as replete with
revelations. After the light from a
celestial object has passed through
the prism of a spectrograph, many
important facts are disclosed concern-
ing it which would be impossible to
learn by other means. It is from
spectrum analysis that we obtain
much of our knowledge of the density
and constitution of planetary atmos-
pheres; of the motions, constituents
and the states of stars, comets and
nebule. The spectrogram of the
Saturnian system shows the lines in
the ball spectrum and those of the
rings to be oppositely inclined show-
ing that the rate of revolution differs
for each part of the rings, thus pre-
212
due to the absence of
any marked _ surface
Saturn, December 23, 1912. It is as seen in a tele-
scope magnifying about 1400 times, thus covering an
area approximately 200 times that of the moon to the
naked eye. Cassini’s division is the dark gap separat-
ing the two bright rings. The inner or crépe-ring is
visible where seen against the ball of the planet.
Saturn’s belts are a counterpart of Jupiter’s; both
planets are in a ‘‘youthful chaotic state, swathed in
cloud”’ : ar ?
THE PHOTOGRAPH IN ASTRONOMY
detail from which it could be deduced,
until photographs of its spectrum made
at Flagstaff in 1910 and 1911 revealed
for it a retrograde rotation which it
accomplishes in a day of about ten and
three-fourths hours.
It is from a similar analysis of their
light that the motions of stars and nebule
are found. The incandescent condition
of these bodies makes it possible to
ascertain the identity of the substances
of which they consist; and by a com-
parison of their spectra with that of our
sun, some knowledge is obtained of their
state of evolution. Many startling dis-
coveries result from these investigations,
especially in case of some of the nebulz
whose velocities of approach or recession
are so great as almost to defy belief,
reaching in several instances, one thou-
sand kilometers per second.
213
In one case at least, that of the nebula
in Virgo, Dr. V. M. Slipher has detected
the rotation of this great mass by the
inclined lines of its spectrum. Another
interesting and unique spectrographic
discovery is that the wisplike nebula in
the Pleiades in all probability shines by
reflected light received from relatively
near by stars. This is the only known
example of a nebula that shines by any
but its own light.
Direct photographs of the great Hal-
ley’s Comet and Comet a 1910 show
details and the
their tails which
stretch from thirty to fifty degrees or
The cloudlike
streamers in the tails of these comets
remarkable structural
great length of
more across the sky.
indicate something of the rapid flow
away from the head of the mingled
meteoric and gaseous material, and
Jupiter, August 11, 1913.
advisable, since our air is never at its best for long, to make many exposures consecutively, moving the
plate first laterally and then up and down.
more one photograph corroborates another
Photo by C. O. Lampland
In order to secure the best images of a planet photographically, it is
We thus get a chance at a good photograph and further-
214 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
particularly in case of Comet a 1910 in the tail gives evidence of solar forces
the curved, fanlike form of the matter repelling them.
The dark-line nebula in the constellation Virgo. Photographed with
the 40-inch reflector, April 18, 1911. An object of unusual interest on
account of sts rapid motion — 600 miles per second in the line of sight —
and also because it is the first nebula for which rotation about an axis
and proper-motion have been observed
The ‘‘dumb-bell’’ nebula in the constellation Vulpecula. Photo-
graphed with the 40-inch reflector of the Lowell Observatory
Both slit and slit-
less prismatic photo-
graphs of Halley’s,
Gale’s, Brook’s and
other comets of recent
years, segregate and
make known the va-
rious constituents. In
this analysis the prism
differentiates the con-
stitution of the head
and tail, and even the
substances composing
different streamers in
the tail can be iden-
tified. In general,
comet spectra are
quite similar; they
show the existence,
usually, of cyanogen,
sodium and_ hydro-
carbons in the head
while carbon mon-
oxide and solid sun-
lit particles produce
mainly comet tails.
The spectrograph
serves also as a ba-
rometer which enables
one to read many of
the existing conditions
of planetary atmos-
pheres. It tells us
that Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus and Neptune
are surrounded’ by
very dense atmos-
pheres and that the
densities of these in-
crease with the dis-
tances of the planets
from thesun. It was
by this means that
evidence has _ been
secured at the Lowell
Photo by C. O. Lampland
COMET a 1910
One of a series of direct photographs taken at Lowell Observatory
215
Globe of Mars, longitude 270°, 1909.
wane, have what appears to be a ‘‘live”’
and a‘‘dead’’ season.
From drawing by Percival Lowell
Dr. Lowell has discovered that the canals of Mars wax and
They are thought to be strips and oases
of vegetation sustained by the waters of melting solar snow-caps, distributed through canals constructed
by intelligent beings
Observatory, that not only does Mars
have an atmosphere, although less dense
than the earth’s, but that it contains
the essential life-supporting substances,
oxygen and water-vapor.
Photographs by Mr. C. O. Lampland
taken with the great reflecting telescope
of forty inches aperture, at the Lowell
Observatory, show star clusters contain-
ing almost countless suns similar to our
own, but so distant that their light
travels hundreds of years to reach us;
as well as examples of the different
classes of nebule presenting
216
unique
and interesting forms. Also, photo-
graphs of our moon show clearly the
great craters many times larger than
any on the earth, and mountains which
rise to a height of ten thousand feet or
more.
What has created most interest, how-
ever, are the non-pareil photographs of
the Martian canals — the possible in-
genious handiwork of intelligent beings.
These peculiar markings characteristic
of Mars only, were first detected in
1877, by the eminent Italian astronomer,
Schiaparelli. Because of similarity of
Jeisia e
Dg PML DIFF
Mars, longitude 90°, 1909.
7 - .
periee
@ tl sexe
Minto:
From drawing by Percival Lowell
These drawings agree with the photographs taken of the planet. al-
though made independently without any knowledge of what the photographs would show, some of the
latter having been taken indeed at a station in Chile seven thousand miles away
color and of their connection with the
large dark green regions, which were
then generally supposed to be lakes and
seas, Schiaparelli was led to believe them
to be rivers or channels dividing the
continents, and thus they received from
the 1892 the
same linear markings were found to
invade also the “ of Mars, and it
was found too that the positions of
This
disproved the existence of the supposed
seas.
him name canale. In
99
seas
these canals remained permanent.
Then it was soon discovered by
Dr. Lowell that the canals waxed and
waned, that they had a “live” and
“dead”’ season and thus he announced,
in 1894, the theory that the canals and
lakes of Mars were not water but strips
and oases of vegetation sustained by the
waters of the melting polar snow-caps,
and distributed over the arid planet by
an artificial canal system constructed
by intelligent beings.
As time passes and our knowledge of
Mars increases, this theory becomes more
It satisfies all the
facts brought out by observation and
and more probable.
accounts for the remarkable changes
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THE PHOTOGRAPH IN ASTRONOMY
occurring in the peculiar network of
markings which geometrically thread
the planet’s surface. Critical and serial
observations embracing years of study
of the planet by the keen eye of Dr.
_ Lowell have revealed a close connection
between the melting of the polar snows
and the intensification of the canal sys-
tem. This development of the marks of
vegetation follows the passing of the
sun from one hemisphere of the planet
over the other and is most intense during
the Martian spring and summer seasons.
Mars is in a more advanced stage of
planetary evolution than the earth and
it has but a meager supply remaining of
either air or water. Dr. Lowell believes
that the numerous linelike markings seen
there are those of vegetation growing
by an enforcedly constructed irrigation
system. Two significant facts found by
observation support his theory: first,
the marked geometric directness of the
lines — no natural causes can account for
them; second, the characteristic manner
in which they develop with the seasons
and the melting of the snow-caps.
That the canals and oases do change
markedly in intensity from time to time,
is evidenced, directly and indirectly, by
the observations of a number of astron-
omers. The photographs of the planet
also prove this. As far back as 1877
Schiaparelli observed their disappear-
ance and subsequent reappearance which
he attributed to the presence of Martian
clouds but it is now known that clouds
never occur on Mars sufficient to obscure
such surface details. In fact clouds are
very rarely indeed observed there and
when they do appear, they are seen only
as dust storms along the planet’s termi-
nator. It is clear therefore that the
changes he saw in the intensity of the
canals were not apparent and due to
clouds as he thought, but real and due
to seasonal variations in the vegetation.
219
Ever since Schiaparelli discovered
the canals a spirit of skepticism, although
not general, has existed regarding their
reality and the observations of those who
have seen them have met with consider-
able criticism. Various theories have
been advanced to explain them as illu-
sions, but these theories suffered sure
and sudden destruction when in 1905
Mr. Lampland with camera and methods
of his own design first succeeded in
photographing them. Subsequent im-
provements of the method brought better
results and during the succeeding oppo-
sitions of the planet a majority of the
canals and oases have left their imprint
on the photographic plate. However it
is to be remembered that seeing with the
eye is almost instantaneous, while with
the photographic emulsion frequently a
time exposure is required. Because of
this, and the fact that even in the most
tranquil air the telescopic image remains
quiet but for a very short period of time,
the photographic image stands at a
great disadvantage, being a poor average
picture of the planet at that moment.
The importance of these Martian
discoveries has been indicated and em-
phasized by the denunciation they have
called forth. It is the old story over
again of the reception of an advanced
idea, the same intellectual inquisition
which scouted the discovery by Roemer
of the velocity of light, and refused
publication to Mayer’s and then Helm-
holtz’s detection of the law of the con-
servation of energy. Every new idea
in science, Huxley said, starts as a myth
to end as a superstition. The very same
cast of mind that rejected the conserva-
tion of energy for publication in the best
physical magazine of Berlin because of
its supposed absurdity, when it was
young, is proclaiming it, now that it is
old, the greatest scientific advance of
the nineteenth century.
gassiz Fucestes,
Courtesy of D. Appleton and Company
SOME OWL PORTRAITS
Fuertes’, bird. portraits, like those of a great painter of men, depict character and individuality
LOUIS AGASSIZ FUERTES — PAINTER OF BIRD
PORTRAITS
By Frank M. Chapman
OVE of birds as “the most eloquent
expression of nature’s beauty, Joy
and freedom”’ is the rightful heri-
tage of everyone who in one way or
another hears the call of the outdoor
world. But that inexplicable fascination
for birds which awakens an instinctive
uncontrollable response to the sight of
their forms or the sound of their voices,
which arouses a passionate desire to
become familiar their
haunts and obtain an intimate insight
with them in
into their ways, and which overcomes
every obstacle until, at least in a meas-
ure, this desire is gratified, is the gift of
the gods which marks the true orni-
thologist.
always developed, love of birds is sup-
In him the universal, if not
plemented by the naturalist’s longing
to discover the seerets of nature. Your
true bird student, therefore, is a curious,
and sometimes contradictory combina-
tion of poet and scientist.
Men in whom this taste and ambition
combine to make birds the most signifi-
cant forms of the animal world, are not
numerous; but a great painter of birds
must be primarily a man of this type.
When therefore one considers how small
is the chance that the essential attributes
which make on the one hand an orni-
thologist, on the other an artist, will be
found in one individual, it is small won-
der that the world has known so few
real bird portrait painters.
Artists who introduce into their can-
vases birds as impossibly feathered as
conventional angels, artists who paint
birds with more or less accuracy of color
and form and, more rarely, pose, have
not been few in number; but the artists
who paint bird portraits based on an
intimate, sympathetic, loving study of
their subject in nature, and who have
the ability to express what they see and
feel, can be counted on one’s fingers,
and the name of Louis Agassiz Fuertes
would be included before the second
hand was reached.
Fuertes in possession of a_ freshly
captured specimen of some bird which
was before unknown to him is, for the
time, wholly beyond the reach of all
sensations other than those occasioned
His con-
centration annihilates his surroundings.
by the specimen before him.
Color, pattern, form, contour, minute
details of structure, all are absorbed and
assimilated so completely that they be-
come part of himself, and they can be
reproduced at any future time with
amazing accuracy. Less consciously,
but no less thoroughly and effectively,
does he store impressions of the bird’s
appearance in life, its pose, mannerisms,
characteristic gestures of wings, tail or
crest, its facial expression — all are re-
corded with surprising fidelity.
This indeed is the keynote of Fuertes’
genius —for genius it is. His mind
appears to be a delicately sensitized
plate designed especially to catch and
fix images of bird life; and of such images
he has filed, and has at his finger tips for
use, a countless number; for his oppor-
tunities for field study have been greater
than those of any other painter of birds.
It has been my good fortune to be with
Fuertes on many occasions when for the
first time we met with some particularly
interesting bird in nature. At such
times there was perhaps no very marked
difference in the extent of our enthusiasm
or the manner in which it was expressed;
221
22 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
but all the time, subconsciously, Fuertes’
mental photographic processes were mak-
ing record after record. At the moment
not a line would be drawn or a note
written, but so indelibly and distinctly
was what he had seen, etched on his
memory that it could later be visualized
as clearly and faithfully as though the
original were before him.
Fuertes’ bird portraits, like those of a
great portrait painter of men, depict not
only those externals which can be seen
by any observant person, but they reveal
character. Examine, for instance, the
drawings of owls’ faces, or the sketches
of toucans which are reproduced in this
connection, and note how much in-
dividuality is expressed in each drawing.
These pictures are instinct with life and
differ from the work of the inexperienced
or unsympathetic artist as a living bird
differs from a stuffed one.
Fuertes was born at Ithaca, where he
now lives, in 1874. In 1897 he was
graduated from Cornell, of which his
father was director of the College of
Civil Engineering. Drawing birds was
with him as natural an outward evidence
of an inward condition, as with most
children spinning tops is an expression
of an inherent love of play. Before his
graduation he had made the illustrations
for Florence Merriam Bailey’s Birding
on a Bronco, and Mabel Osgood Wright’s
and Elliot Coues’ Citizen Bird.
It was the encouragement he received
from Coues that led him definitely to
decide to become a painter of birds, and
the immediate recognition his work re-
ceived permitted him to give rein to the
naturalist’s longing to see the birds of
other lands.
In 1898 therefore he went with Abbott
H. Thayer, under whom he was studying,
Gerald Thayer and Charles R. Knight,
to Florida. The following year, as a
member of the Harriman Expedition to
Bering Sea, he had exceptional oppor-
tunities to meet in life many boreal birds
which had been studied by few, if any,
bird artists. The reports of this ex-
pedition contain some of the studies
In 1901 he accom-
panied a party of the Biological Survey
In 1903 he studied
in California and Nevada; in 1904 in
Jamaica; and in 1909 in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence.
In 1902, 1907, 1908-11 and 1913,
Fuertes acted as artist to the American
made on this trip.
into western Texas.
Museum’s expeditions, which during
made field studies and
gathered material for habitat groups in
the Museum from the Bahamas, Florida,
Saskatchewan and Alberta, Yucatan,
Mexico and Colombia.
On these expeditions he has collected
about thirty-five hundred specimens
which are beautifully prepared and fully
labeled with data of special value to the
artist, when necessary. These data are
in the shape of color sketches of bill,
feet, eyes, or other unfeathered areas,
the colors of which disappear after death.
Such studies can be obtained only from
the living or freshly captured bird, and
Fuertes’ collection of them is unique.
As the artist of Museum expeditions,
Fuertes has not only made sketches of
the birds secured, but oil studies of the
landscape selected as the panoramic
background for the habitat group in
which the birds were later to appear.
In each instance these are accompanied
by detailed color sketches of leaves and
these years
blossoms for the guidance of the pre-
parator of the vegetation modeled for
the group. Where birds appear in the
background of the completed group,
they are painted there by Fuertes him-
self; and the landscapist who realizes
his limitations gladly avails himself of
this expert codperation. Thus we have
in these groups (notably the flamingo
rn ane 3
LABtar [gveors
PLA lessus )
Green Tous ae
: (Avtacorbar phus)
i
Dr ns te oLé fe
/PRlam PhO4STOs. |
STUDIES OF SOUTH AMERICAN TOUCANS
Fuertes’ opportunities for field study have been greater than those of any other painter of birds. For just
his work on the bird groups in the American Museum he has studied in the Bahamas, Florida, Saskatchewan
and Alberta, Yucatan, Mexico and Colombia
223
224
group), paintings by this artist which to
bird lovers of later generations will have
all the interest a panoramic painting by
Audubon of, for example, a flight of
wild pigeons would have for us to-day.
& Because of the accuracy of his work,
Fuertes is ever in demand as the illus-
trator of technical and popular books
and articles on ornithology. His con-
tributions to publications of this nature
amount to thousands of drawings; many
of them have been adequately produced
in color and through their wide circula-
tion, they have exercised an educational
influence of the highest importance.
Such for example are the illustrations in
Eaton’s great work on the Birds of New
York, published by the State; those in
the National Geographic Magazine, and
the series appearing in Bird-Lore.
Peregrine falcon with bufflehead.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
In all of these illustrations everything
is made subservient to the bird itself,
which usually claims as large a share of
the picture as it does of Fuertes’ atten-
tion. But in a series of twenty-four
large panels in oils, done for the library
of Mr. Frederick F. Brewster of New
Haven, the birds, chiefly water-fowl and
shore birds, take their proper place in a
series of strongly handled landscapes
which reveal Fuertes’ art in a new aspect.
With no sacrifice of his skill and insight
as a painter of bird portraits, he has here
placed his subjects in a setting which
adds immeasurably to their beauty and
to the appeal they make to the imagi-
nation. These pictures, in the writer’s
opinion, are Fuertes’ greatest achieve-
ment and point the way for the develop-
ment of his exceptional gifts.
\
Property of F. F. Brewster
From painting by Fuertes.
\6
\
N
Property of the Artist
BARRED OWL
The ‘hoot owl” is still a fairly common bird in all of the wooded parts of eastern North America. Like most
birds of prey, it is misunderstood and is persecuted on sight, although its food consists almost
exclusively of small destructive mammals, birds forming no regular part of its fare
Property of Truman EF. Fassett
GOLDEN EAGLE AND PTARMIGAN IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
Property of F. F. Brewster
WILD TURKEY
Formerly inhabiting the entire forested parts of North America from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico and
west to the Great Basin, the turkey is now extinct north of Pennsylvania and common only in a few
greatly restricted regions. It is America’s finest contribution to domesticated poultry
Courtesy of ‘‘Bird-Lore”’
TROGONS FROM COLOMBIA
The trogons are tropical birds of superlative beauty, being of the richest iridescent greens, violets
and blues above, with underparts of blood red or purest yellow. The most gorgeous of
all, the sacred Quetzal of the Aztecs, is related to the larger bird figured
SYOVESVANVO
aagsmang “of “ fo Msadorgq
Property of F. F. Brewster
OLD SQUAWS
Old squaws breed closer to the pole than any other bird except the knot sandpiper.
They are wonderful divers and are frequently caught in the Great
Lakes in whitefish nets set in fifty fathoms
7
? £ ap ay iG
Property of F. F. Brewster
SNOWY OWL
Nesting mainly within the Arctic circle, this owl comes well within the United States in winter, being
always more abundant along the sea-coast. Its food is largely fish, caught from
the edge of the ice or gleaned from the beaches at low tide
Owned by the Artist
DISPLAYING
,
ARGUS PHEASANT
Little is known of the habits of the argus pheasant of Mala
y Peninsula, Java and
J
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Deserted by his fellows, this young Johnny has his ‘‘heart in his throat’’
THE PENGUINS OF SOUTH GEORGIA
“ JOHNNIES’”’ AND “KINGS”? ON A DESOLATE SUBANTARCTIC ISLAND!
By Robert Cushman Murphy
Illustrations from photographs by the Author
HE territory of the “Little People
of the Antarctic”’ has lately been
subjected to so many friendly
invasions that we are beginning to feel
fairly well acquainted with a number of
their tribes. First in entertaining word
pictures, then in photographs, and
finally in the beauty and realism of the
cinematograph film, we have been shown
something of the life histories of the
jolly little Adélie penguin, the stately
emperor and several others.
Owing to the recent interest in ex-
ploration and discovery upon the south
polar continent itself, the penguins?
1 Article and photographs copyrighted, Feb-
ruary, 1915, by Robert Cushman Murphy.
2A study of the habits of penguins is partic-
ularly valuable at this time when public interest
has recently been given to Sir Douglas Mawson’s
wonderful moving pictures of penguins, taken
on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition and
inhabiting those uttermost shores have
been studied somewhat to the exclusion
of species equally intc resting, and longer
known to man, which dwell outside the
Antarctic Circle and make their homes
upon the chain of desolate Subantarctic
islands. During the American Mu-
seum’s recent expedition to South
Georgia, which lies within the ice-fields
of the South Atlantic, two species of
penguins were intimately encountered —
exhibited daily at Weber’s Theatre in New York
City during one of the spring months.
It is to be noted that none of the species pictured
by Sir Douglas Mawson (the Adélie, emperor,
gentoo, Victoria, king and royal) nor those de-
scribed by Mr. Murphy have ever been kept in
zoological gardens, although a few unsuccessful
attempts have been made with the king penguin
in Europe. One can study in the New York Zo6-
logical Park at the present time several speci-
mens of the blackfooted penguin (Speniscus
demersus) from South Africa [purchased through
German dealers]|.— Tue Eprror.
225
226
the magnificent king penguin (A pteno-
dytes patachonica) and the companion-
able little Johnny penguin (Pygoscelis
papua). The former are dignified, im-
posing birds, standing a yard high,
contented with their own society, and
indifferent toward other creatures. As
a badge of aristocracy they
around their necks gleaming gold collars.
The Johnny penguins, on the other
hand, are roly-poly and plebeian, in-
terested in everybody, and quite re-
mind one of small boys. The two
species live on the same territory and
wear
follow the same vocation of deep-sea
fishers, yet their society is inviolably
distinct.
We first met the Johnny penguins on
the southward voyage in latitude 43° S.,
on November 15, 1912. Cold westerly
winds had raised a heavy swell on this
day, and just before nightfall penguins
began to pass the ship in couples or
small groups. They remained below
the water most of the time, but their
braying calls frequently attracted at-
tention to sleek heads and upright tails,
the only visible parts of birds at the
surface.
Some of the Johnny penguin rookeries
at South Georgia were on low ground
near the sea, but the largest rookery
that we discovered, comprising between
four and five thousand birds, was dis-
tributed over knolls and ridges behind
a great moraine-beach at the Bay of
Isles. The site is bounded by two
glaciers so that it can be reached only
from the bay. In 1912-13 the penguin
settlements, beginning half a mile from
the water front, extended inland and up
the hills to a height of about six hundred
feet. As long as young penguins were
on this nesting ground, processions of
adults might at all times be seen coming
and going between the high land and
the sea. The birds met and_ passed
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
each other without a visible sign of
recognition, each trundling gravely along
on its own business. A _ broad thor-
oughfare had been stamped across the
moraine, worn down doubtless through
generations of the pattering of little
leathery feet, while deeply grooved,
sinuous avenues extended up the long
snowbank to the highest portions of the
colony.
This type of rookery is common at
South Georgia wherever high land is at
all accessible. No matter how much
available territory there may be near
the water, no matter how wearisome the
scramble up the hillsides, a certain
proportion of the members of each colony
selects as home the summits of the windy,
shelterless ridges. Why should marine
birds which lack altogether the power of
flight, and which are at best indifferent
walkers, prefer to make the period of
propagation difficult for themselves by
retreating as far as possible from their
only source of food?
A consideration of the history of South
Georgia may help in an interpretation
of the strange instinct which drives the
Johnny penguins to nest among the hills.
The island is small, but its glaciers are
as mighty as those of Spitzbergen, and
there is ample evidence that it was
formerly completely buried by an ice-
cap. The interior, which rises to an
altitude of more than six thousand feet,
is no longer ice-clad, excepting on the
peaks, but is covered with an everlasting
névé of the Alpine type. This con-
solidates at the sources of all the valleys
to form tongues of ice, most of which
extend into the sea, ending in abrupt
walls. Since most of the fiords have
been carved out by former extensions
of the valley glaciers, the coast is almost
beachless, the few areas of low, flat land
being terminal moraines or beds_ of
moribund or extinct glaciers. Even
THE PENGUINS OF SOUTH GEORGIA 227
now, with the fluctuating seasons, the
glaciers sometimes advance their fronts
and flanks over considerable ground
once abandoned, but in general glacia-
tion is on the wane, and an appreciable
decline has taken place even within a
century. From such a condition it may
be assumed that for a long period follow-
ing the last ice-cap very little territory
suitable for breeding purposes was ex-
posed. Whatever bare earth existed
must have been found along the ridges
which separated the ice-filled valleys.
During such a period these small pen-
guins may have developed the trait
which still leads them to seek lofty places
for their nests. The fact that South
Georgia was formerly the home of a far
more abundant fauna than at present
would have tended to fix the “moun-
taineering”’ instinct, for animals ob-
taining their sustenance only in the sea
would have a tendency to increase more
rapidly than the proportionate area of
the beaches, and through sheer overflow
of population many birds would be
forced to content themselves with the
less accessible ground, leaving the shores
to great herds of summering seals, and
the adjacent nesting-sites to powerful
rivals such as the king penguins.
The faith which the Johnny penguins
hold in the protectiveness of high land
is strangely shown by their habit of
running away from the water whenever
danger threatens. Their terrible ma-
rine enemy, the sea-leopard, a large
carnivorous seal, has fixed within the
Johnnies an instinct which urges them.
to seek safety only on terra firma. Con-
sequently they do not govern their acts
according to their perceptions. Time
and again I have seen a group of them
standing at the water’s edge when a fox
terrier, brought ashore from the vessel,
started toward them at a run. If the
penguins deigned to show any fear at
the approach of the barking dog they
invariably responded not by taking to
the water, where they would have been
rid immediately of the tormentor, but
by deliberately running up the beach,
heading for the nearest bank or hillside.
Even after the dog had seized a penguin
by its bristly tail and had swung it
round and round merely for the fun of
At a rookery of Johnnies
228
teasing, the poor dazed victim would
still persist in scampering away from
the water. I often found that the
surest way to keep penguins ashore was
to try to drive them into the sea.
The antiquity of the hill-climbing
instinct among the Johnny penguins is
finally attested by a strange and roman-
tic phenomenon, namely that the pen-
guins go back to the seclusion of the
heights to die. In a hollow at the
summit of the coast range south of the
Bay of Isles lies a clear lake on a bed of
ice-cracked stones. This transparent
pool, formed entirely of snow-water,
with a maximum depth of twelve or
fifteen feet, is a penguin graveyard.
In January, 1913, I found its bottom
thickly strewn with the bodies of pen-
guins which had outlived the perils of
the sea and had apparently accomplished
the rare feat among wild animals of
dying a natural death. They lay by
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
scores all over the stony bed of the pool,
mostly on their backs, with pinions out-
stretched, their breasts reflecting gleams
of white from the deeper water. Safe
from their two enemies, the sea-leopard
in the ocean and the skua gull ashore,
they took their last rest. For months,
perhaps years, they would undergo no
bodily change in their frigid graves.
Nesting Johnnies are generally timid,
scampering off at the approach of a man,
but never retreating more than a few
paces. A small proportion of them
stand their ground on the nests and show
fight, employing as weapons both bill
and wings. With the latter they can
strike rapid and forceful blows. On one
occasion a bird which I had roused from
sleep attacked me and beat such a
furious tattoo upon my leather leggings
that its own pinions were soon bleeding.
When a brooding penguin is driven away
from young nestlings it lingers near by,
An adult Johnny with the first chick. Three or four days usually intervene between the hatching
of the two eggs.
the head
Note the penguin’s long tail pointing stiffly upward, and the white fillet which crosses
THE PENGUINS OF SOUTH GEORGIA 229
trumpeting loudly until the disturbance
is over; then it examines its offspring
very minutely, stooping down near-
sightedly, and scrutinizing one and the
other over and over again. When
satisfied that all is well it settles down
contentedly. The incubating birds turn
about in their nests so as to keep their
bills pointed toward the skua_ gulls,
which walk about the rookeries with evil
purpose and wait patiently hour after
hour for a chance to steal an egg.
Eternal vigilance is the price of safety
for the penguins. The
sharply whenever a skua draws near,
and the free penguins make angry but
vain rushes at the common enemy.
Besides the hiss of wrath the Johnny
penguins have a variety of louder calls.
sitters hiss
The ordinary trumpeting note sounds
like the noise of a tin horn or the braying
of an ass; the sound is double, being
produced by both expiration and inspira-
tion, and is accompanied by a rising
The
voice is pitched in a much lower key
than that of the king penguin. Usually
the head is pointed upward while the
The mouth is held
and falling of the lower throat.
penguin trumpets.
wide open, with the spiny tongue show-
ing, and the expelled breath condenses
The trumpetings
are often repeated many times without
interruption, and under excitement the
into clouds of vapor.
bird’s whole bodily energy seems to be
put into the call. Another note is a
short, single “caw,” which the penguins
are apt to utter as soon as they emerge
This call sounds like a
hail from one man to another, and the
from the sea.
human suggestion is enhanced by the
penguins’ habit of waving their flippers
A proud parent with two healthy, pot-bellied youngsters.
The near young one is trumpeting
230
as if beckoning. The weak trumpetings
of nestling Johnnies have a_peevish,
scolding quality,
even hysterical at
times. The youngsters have a soft,
peeping note also, indicative of well-fed
contentment.
By the middle of January the young
penguins were mostly two-thirds grown,
and their incessant chattering could be
heard a long way from the rookeries.
The older youngsters walked about in
an uncertain, wobbly fashion, tagging
TT
Wa:
The Johnny on the left has fallen and soiled his clothes.
youngsters is the signal of the approaching molt
after their fathers and mothers and
trumpeting nervously when left too far
behind. When I the
nests, all but the youngest chicks left
them and herded together.
walked among
The brood-
ing adults too, rushed away, but a few
squeaks from the abandoned little ones
usually brought them back, scampering
hither and thither and swinging their
wings frantically. If the youngsters
happened to be old enough to walk,
the parents coaxed them along by giv-
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
ing small tastes of food, with promises
of more, but in hysterical fashion they
would soon forget to wait for their
feeble babies, and would have to be
called back repeatedly.
By the end of January all but a very
few of the young penguins, still clad in
the softest of gray and white “fur,”
had permanently deserted the nests and
had congregated by themselves, but
always under the guard of adult nurses.
In fine weather they might be seen
The white spot on the heads of these
sunning themselves on the snowbanks,
and at other times crouching from the
wind Some of
them were as large as the adults, but
they were still dependent for their food,
and they had not yet been to the sea-
shore. I often saw them pleading to be
fed when the old birds evidently did not
wish to gratify them. Such begging
youngsters ran about after the adults,
following every dodge and turn, con-
tinually bumping into them and stepping
in sheltered hollows.
THE PENGUINS OF SOUTH GEORGIA
on their tails until the harassed adults
gave up ip despair. The young ones
would then press closely against the
provider, open their little bills expect-
antly, and lose nothing of the regurgi-
tated meal.
About the first of February most of
the young Johnnies begin molting their
down, thus exposing the adult plumage
feathers which have developed under-
neath the down. The down is shed
in sheets and patches; the process re-
sembles the peeling of the velvet from a
deer’s horn. By the middle of February,
or toward the close of the molting period,
clinging tufts, collars, or top-knots of
down give the otherwise smooth young
penguins the appearance of clowns and
pierrots.
The molt of the nestling Johnny
penguins is succeeded closely by the
annual molt of the adults. Toward
the end of February the feathers of the
latter, already much faded and frayed,
begin to drop out, still further to litter
the ground of the rookeries. The molt-
ing season of the adults seems to endure
all through the Antarctic summer. On
March 12 I observed that a few of the
adults had not yet begun to doff their
old coats, which were brown, rough and
threadbare. Many more, the majority
of the birds in fact, were in the throes
of the process and were exceedingly
ragged, the new plumage showing in
spots. Still others had completed the
molt of the old body feathers, but still
retained their long tails, while the most
advanced birds had lost all their feathers
including the tail, a temporary loss
which gave them a more dumpy outline
than ever; for appearance sake a
Johnny can ill afford to be without its
luxuriant caudal bristles.
The Johnny penguin has not in any
degree the fearless and courageous dis-
position of its Antarctic cousin, the
231
Bands of Johnnies
along the beaches are prone to take
alarm if a man appears suddenly among
them. The most successful course of
action is to approach them slowly,
halting at a discreet distance and so in-
viting the penguins to take the initiative.
They have a large bump of curiosity
Adélie penguin.
and will presently push the acquaint-
ance, their familiarity increasing in
direct proportion to the quietness and
seeming indifference of the observer.
A description taken from my notes of
1912,
On the afternoon of this day I walked to
a glacial pond on the far side of which
stood a group of Johnny penguins. As
December 23, is characteristic.
soon as they saw me one of their num-
ber across
walked toward me.
water and
I remained motion-
less until it came up quite to my feet
and stood there. When I moved quietly,
it followed, and when I stopped, it did
likewise. Then, one by one, it was
joined by the other penguins from across
the pond. It was whimsical to see this
troop of mimicking small brothers with
no other wish than to keep me company.
I finally broke the spell by stooping to
pat one on the head, when they all
wiggled their tails, hurried back into
the pond, and swam across like porpoises.
On March 12 I rowed ashore during a
brisk snowstorm and found a _ whole
army of penguins near the rookery at
Possession Bay. They were standing
by hundreds in a long double row along
the beach. These rows marched for-
ward to meet and surround me, and
their numbers were continually aug-
mented by new arrivals which kept
popping out of the surf, and came
running up the shingle as if much
astonished to find me there.
The Johnnies walk in a deliberate
manner, raising their feet high at each
step, carrying their tails well above the
swam under
Off to sea!
ground, thrusting their wings behind
them as balances, and poking the head
the
sighted attitude.
forward into accustomed near-
Their nearsightedness
is probably no less real than apparent,
because of the specialization of their
eyes for vision through a medium of
water.
In crossing the stony or hummocky
beaches that separate various arms of
the bays, or that lead from the sea to
the snow-water ponds in which the
penguins delight to play, they follow
When
bent on a definite journey across the
regular, well-tramped avenues.
land they trudge along very steadily
and unconcernedly, and for the time
seem to take no notice of their fellows.
When in great haste they fall upon the
belly and run on all fours. By this
well-known mode of progression, called
“tobogganing,”’ they can lead a mana
Their most curi-
ous attitude is assumed when they walk
very creditable chase.
down an incline, such as a snowbank or
a steep beach. The head is then thrust
so far forward that the straight neck
and the spine form a right angle; the
232
Relieved sitters setting their balancers and starting on the long walk to the water
wings are held stiffly back as far as
possible, and the round belly projects
as the bird proceeds with gingerly steps.
Their fat bodies seem to be made to
stand hard knocks, for not only do they
tumble over frequently wherever the
walking is rough on shore, but they also
suffer fearful batterings on the shingle
when they come out of the surf, some-
A group of Johnnies — downy young ‘‘nurses,”*
and molters.
times being bowled over by four or five
successive breakers before they can
scramble out of the undertow.
When wading into the water the
Johnny penguins invariably round their
shoulders, bend down their heads almost
to their feet, and scoop beneath the
surface as soon as there is depth enough
to float them. Once under way, all
One is in the ecstatic attitude of trumpeting
their terrestrial awkwardness vanishes.
They swim with well-nigh incredible
speed, remaining below the surface ex-
cept when they leap out porpoise-like, giv-
ing an audible gasp for air — to be gone
again within the twinkling of an eye.
One evening I stood knee-deep in the
water of the Bay of Isles and watched
at close quarters four Johnny penguins
swimming. The sea was fairly calm,
the water clear and brilliant in the sun-
set light. The quartet of penguins
darted hither and thither all about me,
now and again almost brushing my legs.
Frequently they rolled their backs above
the surface, and more rarely they leapt
out. I distinctly observed that the
strokes of their flippers were sometimes
made alternately and sometimes in
unison. Probably they were feeding,
although I could not see their prey.
Whether for sport or a more serious
purpose they occasionally swam in the
ridge of an advancing swell, going so
far up the beach that they were left
stranded fora moment. Presently three
of them walked out of the sea, shook the
water from their tails and became so
233
234
immensely interested in watching me,
that they pursued me for a while when
I left the spot.
On another occasion I witnessed an
extraordinary diversion of the penguins
in the graveyard pool already mentioned.
This pond, lying in a hollow of the hills,
was bordered on three sides with a
perpendicular bank of hard snow, the
remaining shore being a stony slope.
On the afternoon of my visit penguins
- were swimming jn it, for pure enjoyment
of course, for there was no food, no
living thing, not even a visible alga, in
the transparent snow water. How alert
and reptilian the penguins seemed in
How unlike the
inelegant, ridiculous creatures they are
ashore! They dashed straightaway un-
der water the length of the pool and
their own element!
back again, with a velocity which I had
then an opportunity to compute as about
thirty feet a second. They chased each
other round and round, flashing into the
air twice or thrice during their bursts
of speed, every action plainly revealed
through the clear, quiet water, with the
white dead birds down below them.
When the swimmers rested at the sur-
face, only the white-filleted head and
up-pointed, ridged tail showed, as a rule,
but sometimes they would float higher,
like grebes. Several of them tried to
leap out onto the bank of frozen snow
which rose a yard above the water.
Strangely enough they misjudged their
distance repeatedly; they jumped too
soon, and were on the downward seg-
ment of their arc before they had cleared
the edge.
dozen times and fail; it always leapt a
I saw one individual try a
few lengths too soon and whacked its
shiny breast against the wall of ice. A
group of birds, which had been sunning
on a snow bank, entered the water as if
by mutual agreement. Some of them
walked to the rocky slope and waded,
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
arching their necks and tucking their
heads under water before they made the
plunge. Others flopped off the edge of
the ice. I say flopped because they did
not make graceful standing dives, such
as I had expected; on the contrary they
entered with flagrant, splashing “belly-
The great discrepancy be-
tween the Johnny penguin and the Adélie
penguin in jumping and diving ability
first sight rather surprising.
Through the medium of the films taken
whoppers.”
is at
during the Australasian Antarctic Ex-
pedition I have seen the prodigious,
salmon-like leaps of the plucky little
Adélies, while the photographs of Scott’s
Expedition well illustrate the graceful
dives of these denizens of polar shores.
It must be borne in mind, however,
that the Johnny, with a Subantarctic
range, breeds on no land which has an
ice-shelved coast. The ability to gain
the land by a catapultic spring has
doubtless vanished with the disappear-
ance of the necessity for such a method.
The Johnny penguins often feed far
at sea, but during the long breeding
season they apparently all return to the
land for the night. In late afternoon
we usually saw long troops of them
“porpoising”’ into the fiords from sea.
This habit is so well known that sealers,
overtaken in their boats by an impene-
trable South Georgian fog, rely upon the
home-coming penguins for the direction
of the flat beaches.
Considering the fact that most marine
birds swim as soon as they emerge from
the shell, the tardiness of young penguins
in taking to the water has been pointed
out as a remarkable phenomenon. The
explanation of this, however, is doubtless
that the speed and stamina required in
capturing living pelagic food, in escaping
from the dreaded sea-leopard, and in
swimming through breaking surf, cannot
be developed early in life by birds which
THE PENGUINS OF SOUTH GEORGIA
use the wings instead of the feet as
propelling organs. Certainly the pin-
ions of nestling penguins seem extraordi-
narily underdeveloped. The little birds
begin to exercise them soon after birth
by flapping them, weakly at first but
vigorously later on —a trait that sug-
gests ancestral aspirations for flight.
On many occasions I put nestlings of
various ages, as well as fully grown,
molting young, into the fresh water
ponds, where they proved themselves
almost as helpless as human_ beings
unfamiliar with swimming. They in-
stinctively put their heads under water
and tried to swim below the surface in
the approved fashion, but it was a feat
quite impossible for them. They beat
the wings simultaneously, and bobbed
up and down without making much
progress. Such a scene always attracts
a band of skua gulls to the spot, as if
235
these ogres realized the helpless misery
of a young penguin in the water. The
skuas do not strike while their prospec-
tive victim is swimming, but pace along
the shore waiting to intercept its land-
ing. Once a half-grown youngster, with
which I had been experimenting, crawled
out of the graveyard pool into the very
jaws of seven skuas which attacked it
en masse. The little penguin struck
with its feeble wings and cried out
piteously. Insignificant as it was, not
one of the skuas dared seize it outright,
but they made quick rushes from all
sides, striking the penguin on the head
with closed bills, and then retreating.
I hurried to the rescue and restored the
little bird to its nest where I afterward
saw it resting characteristically with its
head hidden between its mother’s warm
feathered thighs.
{Story of King Penguins in next issue of JouRNAL]
A group of king penguins.
of the American Museum of Natural History
Above is Lucas Glacier named by Mr. Murphy in honor of the director
986
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EUROPEAN CAVES AND EARLY MAN
By N. C. Nelson
Intropuctory Note: The American Museum is one of several institutions in the New
World to maintain an active interest in palzolithic archeology as developed in Europe. At
the present time, for example, a comprehensive display indicative of this earliest of art and
industry is open to the public. With the addition of a much-needed somatological series the
exhibit would give the visitor a surprisingly complete ocular demonstration of man’s origin and
of the various steps in his physical and mental history.
In order to make clearer to the general public the binding nature of modern conclusions
regarding early human developments it was decided some time ago to construct a model of a
palzolithic cave station. The station selected as most instructive for this purpose was the
Castillo grotto, in northern Spain, there being preserved here in forty-five feet of distinctly
stratified deposits the whole industrial history of man almost from the earliest beginnings down
to the introduction of metal. In connection with this project, which was inspired largely by
the interest of Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the Museum, the writer had opportunity
a little over a year ago to examine a large number of the palolithic stations in western Europe
and the following general remarks are based on observations then made.! — N.C.N.
HERE are recorded at the present
time for the southern two-thirds
of Europe, including Mediter-
ranean Asia and Africa, no less than
four hundred paleolithic stations, that
is, places where remains of one kind or
another have been left behind by early
man. ‘This man was primarily a hunter
and his chief center of activity appears
to have been what is now southwestern
France and northeastern Spain although
Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Eng-
land, and to a lesser degree other coun-
tries, came within his range. ‘This
apparent distribution may be deceptive
however. Many of the stations are out
1The geographical distribution of important
caves and shelters, the cave art and the palzo-
lithic industrial remains were considered in the
JOURNAL issues of December, 1912 and October,
1914,
in the open, as for example on the valley
terraces of the Thames and the Somme;
but the majority of the sites, especially
those of later times, are sheltered in some
way. The shelter may consist merely
of an overhanging cliff, it may be a grotto
yawning on the mountain side and it may
be the far interior of a cave. This
latter type of site it is relatively easy to
find by making a deliberate search while
the location of an ancient camp or
workshop in the open country is the
result only of chance. It is conceivable
of course, that these roaming migratory
hunters returned seasonally to the nat-
ural shelters, but on the other hand, it is
possible that many of them built huts —
some of the geometric cave paintings
suggest that they did — and unless these
huts stood in very close proximity to
237
some sheltering cliff, all traces of the
spot and its relics would be lost. Hence,
we may properly take for granted that
hundreds of archeological stations will
remain undiscovered, in
of which our notion of the actual strength
consequence
of the population at any given place
during these early millenniums of human
existence must continue imperfect, if
not inadequate.
As need hardly be stated the presence
of natural habitations depends ordinarily
on a high relief or a more or less moun-
tainous topography. Caves are most
abundant in voleanic regions as in the
western United States or in limestone
areas such as Kentucky and adjacent
commonwealths. Shelters are notable
features of steep-walled valleys or box-
cafions and our own cliff-dweller region
affords the best example of them and
their utilization. In Europe the most
famous cave groups are located in the
lower French Pyrenees and their Canta-
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
brian extension in northern Spain, while
the equally famous shelter region in-
cludes short sections of the Vézére and
Beune Valleys at Les Eyzies, in the
French department of Dordogne. Both
regions are wonderfully picturesque and
impressive and barring some alterations
in the flora they have not changed much
in general appearance since the arrival
of paleolithic man. These caves and
shelters are all in limestone formations
and are the results chiefly of mechanical
erosion. Some of the caves, especially
those of the lower altitudes, are still in
process of making, while others, well up
on the mountain sides, are very ancient —
in fact, were in their old age when man
first entered them.
Roughly speaking, the shelters proper,
that is the overhanging cliffs and the
wide open grottos, were the homes of
palzolithic man and therefore naturally
furnish us with important data concern-
ing his physical make-up, his practical
4 a >
\ .
=
" *,
heal
The Vézére River, its floodplain and cliff wall as seen from the entrance to the Gorge d’Enfer,
above Les Eyzies, France.
The station of La Micoque is on the extreme right, Laugerie Haute at
the foot of the distant cliff and Laugerie Basse nearer by off the first bend in the stream
EUROPEAN CAVES
ability, and the general nature of his
everyday life. The caves, on the other
hand, served him mainly as galleries for
a remarkable series of paintings, engrav-
ings and carvings, which in a measure
reveal to us his mental attitude toward
life. The caves, it must be understood,
were exceedingly dark and damp, ordi-
narily unfit for habitation, except pos-
sibly as temporary retreats during the
y mr
ee
1
Entrance to the cavern of Tuc d’Audoubert near Saint-Girons, France.
AND EARLY MAN 239
Cavern near Montréjeau, France, and
likewise the Altamira Cave, near Sant-
ander, Spain, appear to have been occu-
pied for protracted periods although in
both cases only very close to the en-
trance. On the other hand, some of the
shelters such as Cap Blanc, near Les
Eyzies, France, have preserved, mainly
through accident, a fine series of high
relief sculptures. But as a_ general
A stream still issues
from this cave, which is the most beautiful and in a way the most interesting of all the known
Pyrenean haunts of the ancient artist who has left here not only mural engravings but also models
in clay and even his footprints
hard and the
shelter walls, having been exposed for
thousands of years to the weathering
winters, contrariwise,
elements, could not have preserved for
us either paintings or delicate engravings
that may have been made upon them.
There are several somewhat qualifying
exceptions to these sweeping statements
however. For
instance, the Gargas
thing the camp-sites are in large half-
open shelters, usually facing the sun,
while the entrances to the painted caves
face in any direction and for the most
part are very small and inconspicuous.
At Castillo only there is the perfect com-
bination — a large sunny grotto which
was occupied periodically throughout
most of palolithic times and which
240
served besides as the vestibule to a con-
siderable cave, famous for its mural art.
An examination of the various Dor-
dogne shelters coupled with a study of
the changing types of objects found in
them is most instructive. Nearly all of
the stations here are at the base of the
high cliffs that hedge the narrow valleys
on one or both sides; but in a few in-
stances the relic-bearing débris lies on
an eroded ledge some distance up the
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
defy the English in 1410; still another
ledge marked by ruins of what looks like
some old baronial chateau; and end up
finally with the more or less well-kept
houses of the modern peasant. These
houses often stand on several meters of
ancient relic-bearing débris and seem to
cling in an infantile sort of way to the
overhanging cliff in spite of its cold
damp nature. Some distance up the
Vézére, at the Rock of St. Cristopher,
Anniversary occasion (July 20) of the discovery of the Tuc d’Audoubert cavern.
thusiastic sons who made the discovery of the famous modeled bison.
The amia-
ble Count Begouen is seated in the center while behind him and on the extreme left are his three en-
Professor Emile Cartailhac
is seen to the left of the Count and on the right are two French zodlogists, students of the cave fauna
face of the protecting wall. Almost
within earshot of Les Eyzies are a series
of stations which taken together furnish
data on human history practically from
Acheulian times to the present day.
These stations begin with the old ob-
scured shelter of La Micoque, include
the partially-ruined shelters of Upper
and Lower Laugerie; another ledge-
shelter that served old-time brigands as
a rendezvous and also as a fortress to
where the last houses have been removed,
there are over four meters of débris
dating from neolithic to present time
and the adjacent cliff is marked by sev-
eral series of parallel holes, cut for the
insertion of ceiling beams, precisely as
we find them in our own Southwest.
Some of these holes are high up the
cliff but others are below the surface
of the accumulated débris which is itself
below the high-water mark of the river.
Laugerie Haute, showing present-day dwellings built against the cliff. Beyond the houses a
tremendous overhang which once sheltered Aurignacian and Solutréan people has dropped down,
burying possibly some of the ancient inhabitants
The ideal shelter, Grotte d’Enfer, was probably not occupied as long as might be supposed as it
was subject to floods
241
242
With all this evidence suggestive of con-
tinuous occupation, it is not to be won-
dered at that some students profess to
see among the local inhabitants a num-
ber of individuals that resemble the
physical type of palzeolithic man.
A visit to the painted caves is the
experience of a lifetime; but while it is
an adventure bound to excite more en-
thusiasm than the examination of the
shelters, it is less instructive and cer-
tainly less convincing. It is also an
undertaking fraught with some diffi-
culty and disappointment, except per-
haps in such cases as Altamira, Niaux
and Font-de-Gaume. The painted and
incised representations on the cave walls
are seldom so plain and striking as one
might infer from the superb reproduc-
tions in the published reports, and to
make them out the visitor must take
time. In this effort to decipher, he is
most ably assisted by Professor Emile
Cartailhae of Toulouse, who has given
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
a good part of his life to the study of
paleolithic art and who at present
guards nearly all the Pyrenean caverns.
In Spain and in the Dordogne country,
however, local guides must be taken and
as these are not always competent, the
student who would profit by his oppor-
tunity must prepare himself beforehand
in regard to what is to be seen and then
insist on being shown, or he may not
see much.
The last cave to be discovered and also
the most beautiful is the Tue d’Audou-
bert, located on the estate of Count
Begouen near Saint-Girons, France.
This is perhaps the most difficult cavern
to explore. But to risk passage in the
improvised boat that the visitor must
sail in order to reach the intericr, and to
crawl on his stomach along muddy pas-
sages that are really too small for a full-
grown man, and finally to receive in-
numerable bumps on his head from
pending stalactites is not too much to
Valley of the Rio Pas at Puente Viesgo, Spain.
nent peak on the left is the cave of La Pasiega and a little lower down on the side facing the river (within
view) is the famous Castillo cave and Grotto where man lived periodically almost from the earliest
stone age down close to historic times
Over half way up the farther side of the promi-
Outlook from the Hornos de la Pena cave. Not a human habitation is in sight and the rug-
ged semi-forested country is still the home of the wolf, the bear and the wild boar
Upper entrance to the Mas d’Azil cavern, near Foix, France. 'The Arize River has here tun-
neled a high rock formation about one-fourth of a mile thick and which now accommodates the
public road. Within the 200 foot-square entrance, on the left bank, is the ledge which was occupied
in Magdalenian and Azilian times. In the interior are immense galleries also rich in archeological
material, but now the home only of thousands of screaming bats
243
Entrance to the Pindal cave, north coast of Spain not far from Colombres. The people are stand-
ing on the fallen roof of a long sea passage in the rock which when the entrance was choked permit-
ted the cave behind it to silt up and become an art gallery of considerable note. Professor Henri
Breuil is on the left and the second from him is his colleague, Professor Hugo Obermaier.
The upper photograph shows the view seen from the entrance of the cave. Stratified limestone
stands nearly on end and the waves have cut out long passages in the softer strata
244
EUROPEAN CAVES
pay for the privilege — which, as it
happened, was accorded the Museum’s
representative as the first American —
to see the wonders inside. Ordinarily,
the natural wonders of the caverns
are more or less discolored with mud,
but here is gallery after gallery of be-
wildering forests of pillars and pendants
and posts —all a pure white and glit-
tering as if studded with myriads of
diamonds. Here and there the stalac-
tites hang in large sheets like folded
draperies and by placing a light behind
them the translucent substance flashes
up into colors of
green and rose
too beautiful to
be — deseribed.
No fairy palace
was ever more
adorned! You
are led along de-
vious passages,
stepping again
and again
lakelets of
visibly
in
in-
clear
water and when
on dry footing
you are warned
to
cumspectly for
fear of obliter-
ating some an-
cient human footprints that are faintly
visible under the thin coat of stalagmite
which covers the clay floor. Bones and
skulls of the giant cave bear and other
animals lie all about, cemented in place.
Finally, near the extreme inner end of
the cavern comes the real object of the
laborious journey, viz., the representa-
tions of two bison (male and female)
modeled in clay. The figures which are
about two feet in length, are propped
against the sloping side of a rock which
rises from the floor, and in front of the
move cir-
AND EARLY MAN 245
animals on the floor there are some trac-
ings as if the artist had here sketched
and improvised before beginning his real
work. About twenty-five feet away in
a low side chamber is to be seen the
place where the modeler scraped to-
gether the clay off the floor and kneaded
it. Two or three worked rolls of his
material still lie there. The whole thing
looks as if done a week ago and yet the
bison has been absent from the locality
probably for thousands of years.
The last suggestion of skepticism is in
keeping with the general impression that
er Oa Ba
=. -_
ee’
4
Sagy
7 see
The Schweizersbild station near Schaffhausen, Switzerland. This limestone
excrescence rises abruptly from a meadow-like spot, and in its shelter — facing
approximately west — people lived in Magdalenian times.
who gave three years to the investigation of the site, stands on the right
Dr. Jakob Nuesch,
the visitor retains from the painted caves.
It is a most baffling experience. When
the investigation is confined to the stra-
tified deposits everything is beautifully
simple. Art objects have a definitely
ascertainable place in the series and go
back to Aurignacian times. The cave
art proper is of the same general style
as that of the stratified refuse and must
of course be of the same date; moreover,
the animals represented are in nearly all
cases either extinct or absent from the
region. And yet almost all the mural
246
figures in the caves are within reach of
the hand. In other words, the caves
have undergone no particular changes
since the artist did his work. Not a few
of the paintings, and especially the finer
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
in these caves? It is unsafe to move
ten steps in them without a light. It is
true that a very few stone basins have
been found that may have served pur-
poses similar to the Eskimo lamp, or the
A weathered indentation in the limestone cliff such as served to shelter early man.
down the Vézére Valley from the point of its junction with the Beune Valley, at Les Eyzies, France.
Several caves are to be found in the distant cliff and on one of its high sheltered terraces there is
the interesting ruin of a church dating from the early Christian era
engravings seem as fresh as if done yester-
day. In the Pindal cave is the repre-
sentation of a fish incised on the wall and
the visitor who examines it closely would
swear that he could make a line exactly
like it with a lead pencil, but with Pro-
fessors Breuil and Obermaier standing
behind him he says nothing. And how
did paleolithic man manage to get about
Looking
artist’s right-hand man may have car-
ried a torch; but there are no signs of
such torches or of carbonization on the
walls in the vicinity of the paintings,
although smoke spots made by modern
lamps and candles held too close are
abundant enough. The conviction that
this cave art is not so old as some would
have us believe seems irresistible.
EUROPEAN CAVES
There are other difficult problems
relating to palolithic culture though
none so seemingly baffling as those
pertaining to the cave art, but these
cannot be dealt with at present. Mean-
AND EARLY MAN
247
while the skeptic take some
consolation in the fact that Professor
may
Cartailhae and his French colleagues
were themselves doubters for over
twenty years.
Section of relic-bearing débris recently exposed at Le Moustier shelter near Les Eyzies,
France. In the face of the natural matrix may be counted hundreds of worked and unworked reject
flint flakes
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SSHSI4 VASd3d5d0 AWOS
FISHES OF THE DEEP-SEA
By L. Hussakof
P TO the time of the “ Challenger”
expedition, little
known regarding the fish life
of the abyssal depths of the sea. Only
about thirty species were known. But
the wonderful collections brought back
by the “Challenger”
WEY Was
four-
year cruise (1873-1876) made known
from her
the vast diversity, the strangeness and
even weirdness of this fish fauna. Sev-
eral hundred kinds of deep-sea fishes
had been collected —some of them
dredged from a depth of more than a
mile — and it required a huge quarto!
to describe and picture them. From
this volume dates our real knowledge
of the fishes of the abyssal deep. The
“Challenger” expedition was, indeed, a
“Columbus voyage” in ichthyology;
it opened a new chapter in the history
of the science.
Since that time many deep-sea ex-
ploring expeditions have been sent out
by the various nations, and hosts of
other fishes have been brought up from
the oceans in all parts of the world.
More than a thousand species are now
known, and we can appreciate at its full
value the
this faune
know the
richness and strangeness of
Moreover, not only do we
fishes themselves, but as a
result of the scientific investigations
carried on by the various expeditions,
we now know a good deal of the physical
conditions under which they live, so
that we can, in a measure at least, ex-
plain the why and wherefore of their ex-
traordinary characteristics.
When we think of life in the deep-sea,
there comes to mind, first of all, the
enormous pressure which these creatures
must withstand. This pressure becomes
1 Challenger Reports, Vol. XXII, 1887.
the greater the deeper we go down, and
in the profoundest depths it equals thou-
sands of pounds to the square inch. The
result of this pressure is that the tissues
of these fishes are tender and loosely
knitted together. When they
brought up out of the dark depths, and
are
the great pressure under which they live
is removed, the explosion of the gases
within them bulges out the eyes, and
often blows out the viscera through the
the collapse,
leaving them soft and flabby like moist
mouth, while muscles
rags. Most deep-sea fishes are very
small also, usually only a few inches in
length, and it is probable that this re-
duction in size has come about to some
extent at least, from the great pressure
under which they live.
Another important condition is the
dimness of light, or even darkness in the
profound depths of the sea. If we im-
agine ourselves descending into the deep
ocean, we see the light grow dimmer and
dimmer as we go down, until finally a
level is reached beyond which no light
penetrates at all. The entire vast depth
below it, is in eternal darkness. Now
the fishes living in this dim light, or in
total darkness, have been profoundly
modified by it. In some forms the eyes
have become very small, and in some
cases have entirely disappeared. There
are even fishes in which the skin and
scales of the body have grown over the
place where the eyes should be, so that
these fishes are, as has been aptly said,
“blind Other
forms, on the other hand, have been
affected in an entirely different way.
The eyes, instead of growing smaller,
have grown larger, as if in an attempt to
catch every fleeting ray of light. In
249
beyond redemption.”
250
some fishes this has been carried so far
that the eyes have become like enormous
goggles.
Most deep-sea fishes have luminous
organs of one kind or another, so that
they carry their own light about with
them. In some the entire body glim-
mers, the coating of slime which exudes
from the pores and lateral canals,
emitting a soft silvery glow. In others,
rows of minute, luminous organs run
along the sides of the body, or there are
flashing light-spots on the head or face.
What a wonderful sight would be to us
a small black fish flitting through the
silence and darkness of the deep with
its headlights and row of pores gleaming
through the darkness like some small ship
passing through the night with its port-
holes all aglow! Some deep-sea fishes
have a luminous organ at the end of a
feeler on the head. This is waved to
and fro to act as a lure to attract the prey.
A pertinent question may be asked:
How do we know these fishes glow and
glimmer, since no human eye has ever
beheld them in their abyssal home?
We know this partly from analogy and
partly from actual observation. When
one is in a boat in the tropics, on one of
those sultry nights when everything is
a dead calm, and the black clouds hang
so low that sky and sea form one con-
tinuous blackness, then one may see
the glimmering fishes darting out of the
path of the boat, their forms, silvery
and ghostlike, outlined for one moment
against the blackness of the sea. This
effect is chiefly due to the oxidizing of
the slimy secretion covering their bodies.
Why shall we not believe, then, that in
deep-sea fishes a similar phenomenon
takes place, particularly as in many of
them, the slime pores and canals are
greatly developed and must exude large
quantities of slime? Then too, on deep-
sea expeditions, on favorable occasions,
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
as for instance, a dark calm night, fishes
that have been brought to the surface
and placed in water were seen to flash
light from the ends of the tentacles or
the phosphorescent pores, precisely as
we should have expected from a study
of these organs. Major Alcock, in his
interesting volume, A Naturalist in
Indian Seas, mentions a_ specimen
brought up from a profound depth which
“olimmered like a ghost as it lay dead
at the bottom of the pail of turbid sea-
water.”” So that by inference, as well
as by actual observation, we must be-
lieve that what we call luminous organs
in deep-sea fishes, emit light into the
darkness about them. In the case of
fishes totally blind, the absence of light
is compensated for by the development
of enormous antenne-like feelers, modi-
fied from fin rays, so that these fishes
can feel their way, as it were, through
the darkness.
The absence of light however entails
another important consequence. As is
well known, no plant life can exist in
darkness. There is, therefore, no vege-
tation of any kind in the profound
depths of the sea. The deep-sea fishes
are, in consequence, all carnivorous, the
more powerful ones seizing and devour-
ing the weaker ones. It is a cold black
world where might reigns supreme.
Many have enormous mouths, and
formidable teeth to insure holding the
prey. In some forms the teeth are so
large that the mouth cannot be shut!
Moreover, since meals are perforce far
between, they must be as large as pos-
sible; hence many forms have extraor-
dinarily capacious stomachs. Specimens
have been dredged from the deep which
were enormously distended through
having swallowed fishes larger than
themselves.
The temperature of the water in the
profound depths of the sea, is always low
FISHES OF THE DEEP-SEA
and near the freezing point. This is
true everywhere, even at the equator.
Undoubtedly this has an effect upon
the fishes, although it is not yet known
what it is. The amount of oxygen
dissolved in the water also, is much less
than in water nearer the surface. The
breathing apparatus of the deep-sea
fishes is modified to suit these peculiar
conditions. The gill filaments have
become much reduced in size, and in a
number of instances some of the gill-
arches bear no gill filaments at all. The
fishes are apparently adapted to a much
smaller oxygen supply than those living
in rivers or in the shallow sea.
When we think of the vast diversity
among these fishes, the question arises:
Are they all representatives of a single
family, or group that has become spe-
cially adapted to life in the deep sea;
or do they belong to different families
or groups? One need hardly be an
ichthyologist to answer this question.
Even a cursory examination of the plates
in a work on deep-sea fishes will show
that different types are represented. In
fact, a great many families are included
in the deep-sea fauna. There are sharks
and rays; salmonoids, herrings, perches,
eels, and representatives of many other
families. We can explain this hetero-
geneity among them in this way. We
may imagine that fishes of many differ-
ent kinds in their search, so to speak,
for the unoccupied corners of the sea,
found a haven in these deeper waters
where they were free from pursuit by
their enemies. In the course of time
they migrated farther and farther into
the deep, a change in habits taking place
pari passu with the changes in structure.
Having started out with different organi-
zations, and possessing different degrees
of variability, they became differen-
tiated in diverse directions, so that while
some developed enormous mouths, pow-
251
erful teeth, or phosphorescent organs,
others became bottom-living and partly
or completely lost their eyes. Still
others developed long feelers for groping
their way through the darkness. Now
and again however, fishes of separate
groups developed similar structures,
so that there are many striking cases
among deep-sea fishes of what the
biologist calls “convergence,” or paral-
lelism.
The Museum has recently prepared
for exhibition a number of typical deep-
sea fishes arranged in the form of a
group. The preparation of this exhibit
involved many technical difficulties,
such as the modeling of the fishes in
transparent or translucent media, to
represent them as glimmering or shining
with lit-up “portholes.” Considerable
experimenting was necessary to accom-
plish this group, but all the difficulties
were overcome, thanks to the ingenuity
and perseverance of Mr. F. F. Horter of
the Museum’s taxidermist staff. The
group, as it is now installed, represents
ten types of deep-sea fishes. It is not,
of course, a group in the sense of the
habitat groups displayed in the Museum;
it is not a section, so to speak, taken
from nature and transplanted to the
Museum. In nature so many deep-sea
fishes are not to be found in so small a
space. What the group represents is a
number of fishes which are in nature
scattered over a vast area and through a
great height of water, here brought
together for museum purposes into a few
square feet of space. Each fish is re-
produced accurately with its phosphor-
escent pores and tentacles as these are
known to exist. With one or two ex-
ceptions they are enlarged several times,
as the fishes themselves are very small.
And since it is known that the phos-
phorescent organs do not glow with a
steady light, the illumination of the
A small, silvery, eel-like fish which has been found in all the oceans at depths ranging from a little
less than a mile to two and one-half miles.
It has a row of luminous pores running the length of the
body; and in the blackness of the profound depths it must appear like a miniature long dark boat with
gleaming portholes.
Its greenish, glittering eyes are perched on the ends of slender, hornlike tentacles —
a'feature which has suggested its scientific name, Stylophthalmus paradozrus
group has been arranged so as to have
these luminous organs flash intermit-
tently. Furthermore, the installation is
arranged so that one may view the
fishes for a few seconds in full light, as if
in a synoptic exhibit, and then see them,
when the light goes out, as they are
supposed to appear in the darkness of
the profound depths, lit up only by
their own phosphorescent organs.
Near the top of the group is seen a
fish which lives on the border line be-
tween the region of dimness and total
Many of the fishes living in
this region are not of a uniform sombre
hue, but are brilliantly colored. Neo-
scopelus is one of these. The body is
“one dazzling sheen of purple and silver
and burnished gold, amid which is a
darkness.
sparkling constellation of luminous or-
gans”’ (Alcock).
The glowing fish in the center is
small fish
known from a single specimen, which
Barathronus diaphanus, a
In this deep-sea fish the head glows with a soft pale light, while the body is quite dark, being covered
with large opaque scales.
The species (Opisthoproctus soleatus), is known by only two examples dredged
from a depth of two and a half miles; one off the northern, and the other off the western coast of Africa
(This specimen is not shown in the general photograph of the group, having been cut out for con-
venience in reproduction.
252
It is situated in the group below the bottom fish on the right hand side]
FISHES OF THE DEEP-SEA
was dredged in the Indian Ocean at a
depth of a little over four-fifths of a mile.
The model of it is one and one-half times
the natural size. The phosphorescent
fish with the curious long tail (at the
right) is Gigantura chuni. It, also, is
This
known by only a single specimen.
was brought up from a depth of four-
fifths of a mile in the Gulf of Guinea,
on the west coast of Africa.
is twice the natural size.
The two dark fishes with enormous
The model
253;
Near the bottom of the group at the
left-hand side, is seen an eel-like fish
with a line of lit-up pores. This is an
enlarged model of Stylophthalmus para-
doxus, a small silvery fish widely dis-
tributed in all the oceans, whose young
also are known. The generic name it
bears was given it in allusion to the fact
that the eyes are perched on long slender
tentacles. The species ranges from a
depth of a little less than a mile to two
and one-half miles. Another form with
This strange deep-sea fish (Gigantura chuni) is known by only a single specimen dredged from a
depth of four-fifths of a mile, in the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of Africa.
shimmering glow of iridescence, while the protruding eyes shine like automobile headlights.
formidable teeth mark it as a ferocious carnivore
gaping mouths (near the top, at the
right) are Gastrostomus bairdi. This
species is commoner than some of the
others, a number of specimens being in
several museums. The models of it
in the group are copied life-size from
a specimen in the Museum. The species
occurs in the Atlantic Ocean, near the
American coast, in the path of ocean
liners. Specimens have been dredged
from a depth of nearly three miles.
The body of the fish is a
The
tentacles is Gigantactis vanheffeni, a
species typical of many deep-sea fishes
which have a tentacle, terminating in a
luminous organ, attached to the head.
This tentacle serves as a lure for attract-
ing prey. The present species is known
by only two specimens which were found
in the Indian Ocean at a mile and a
mile and a half from the surface. The
creature is a very small fish, the model
being enlarged six times.
VOLCANOES OF THE LESSER ANTILLES
OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE ACTIVE VOLCANOES
OF MARTINIQUE, ST. VINCENT AND GUADELOUPE!
By Edmund Otis Hovey
T. PELE and the ruined city of
St. Pierre at its base hold chief in-
terest on the island of Martinique.
The old summit plateau of the
voleano is 4050 feet above the sea. This
formerly bore the pool of fresh water known
as ‘‘Lac des Palmistes,” but there is no trace
now of the old lake basin under the coating
of ten to fifty feet of new ash that covers the
plateau. The new cone, which stands as the
enduring monument of the great eruption of
1902-3, nearly fills the old crater adjoining
the plateau and rises some five hundred feet
above it. The famous spine, or obelisk,
which rose more than six hundred feet
farther into the air, disappeared nearly ten
years ago through disintegration, and the
cone as viewed from the sea, presents a flat
top, whose apparent smoothness does not
prepare a visitor for the actual ruggedness
1 Dr. Edmund Otis Hovey, curator of geology
and invertebrate paleontology in the American
Museum, has returned from the first expedition
undertaken with the assistance of the Heilprin
Exploration Fund. This fund was established in
1914 by relatives of the noted explorer and geog-
rapher, the late Angelo Heilprin, for the purpose
of aiding geographical work under the auspices
of the American Museum. On account of Pro-
fessor Heilprin’s well-known work on the 1902—
1903 eruptions of Mt. Pelé, Martinique, it was
considered particularly appropriate that the first
work under the fund should concern the active
volcanoes of the Lesser Antilles in continuation of
the work already done by the American Museum
in 1902, 1903 and 1908. The object of the visit
was to make a comparison of conditions past and
present, in connection with assembling for publi-
cation all previous observations on the eruptions.
The first stop was made at Guadeloupe where
sixteen days were spent, three of which were
passed on the summit of the Soufriére. On
Martinique eleven days were spent in camp on
the old summit plateau of Mt. Pelé, while on
St. Vincent more than three weeks were given
to the study, twelve days of the time being
spent in camp on the volcano. Many specimens
were brought back to New York to illustrate the
changes that have taken place in the rocks during
the past seven years, and scores of photographs
were taken to add to the extensive collections
already in the possession of the Museum as a
result of former expeditions.
254
of surface which he finds on climbing the
mountain.
In 1908 when I last visited Martinique the
new cone was seamed with fissures which dis-
charged great volumes of steam and gave
temperatures as high as 500 degrees C. (932
degrees F.). Considerable steam is still
issuing from these vents, but there are no
temperatures exceeding 100 degrees C. (212
degrees F.). The fumarole area and the
plateau on the west side of the mountain,
between the rivers Blanche and Claire mid-
way between sea and summit, which com-
prised vents giving temperatures of nearly
500 degrees C. in 1908 have likewise greatly
diminished in activity, although vents were
found which even now give a temperature of
128.5 degrees C. (265 degrees F.). On the
whole however it is evident that the activity
of the voleano has greatly and continually
diminished since the outbursts of 1902-1903,
and apparently there is no present danger of
recrudescence.
On the east or windward side of the vol-
cano, the vegetation has reéstablished itself
to the summit of the mountain, and even the
forest is beginning to reassert itself. The
whole aspect of this side of the volcano is
verdant and peaceful, and gives no indication
of the devastation of thirteen years ago;
even the rocks of the new cone are more or
less thickly coated with moss, while the side
and top of the old cone are covered with
grass, ferns and bushes, in addition to moss
and lichens. On the summit plateau we
found an abundance of red raspberry bushes
bearing flowers and green and ripe fruit.
Sugar plantations on the west side of
Mt. Pelé have been reinstated as far as the
Roxelane River, within the border of the
original zone of annihilation, while the
ruined city of St. Pierre now contains about
thirty new buildings of durable construction
and a resident population of possibly two
hundred people.
The southwest side of the voleano lying
between the Seche and Blanche rivers, which
VOLCANOES OF THE LESSER ANTILLES 250
was the route traversed by hundreds or
perhaps thousands of destructive eruption
clouds, still lies drear and desolate, because
the soil was completely swept away by the
blasts, and the material left behind as well as
that added by the eruption is too porous for
the retention of the water necessary to restore
it to fertility. Furthermore, the rainfall of
the west side of the island is much less than
on the east side, and the region is dried by the
rays of the afternoon sun.
The vicinity of the Soufriére on the island
of St. Vincent also shows evidences of re-
covery from the previous activity. Here as
in Martinique, the vegetation has reéstab-
lished itself more thoroughly on the windward
than on the leeward side of the mountain.
Considerable portions of the Soufriére re-
ceived immense deposits of gravelly ash from
the recent eruptions, and these are largely
barren at the present time. Other areas
received a finely comminuted ash which
retains water better than the coarse material,
and suffers more rapid decomposition. This
fine ash is now coated more or less thickly
with moss and lichens, and often bears, in
addition, bushes, trees and tree ferns. The
outer limits of the original zone of annihila-
tion show merely a destruction of the vegeta-
tion then coating the mountain slopes, and
did not suffer destruction or deep burying of
the soil.
Palms and tree ferns have regained their
pristine development and beauty in this
region, and forest trees are growing. On the
east side of the mountain the sugar-cane
plantations which flourished before the
eruptions are now largely restored to culti-
vation and present a heavier growth of cane
than before, while on the west side peasant
proprietors are already taking up “provision
ground”’ on the slopes of the volcano itself.
The great crater of the Soufriére is beautiful
enough to repay the lover of scenery for mak-
ing a special trip to the island. It is about
nine-tenths of a mile across from east to west,
and three-quarters of a mile from north to
south, and a lake approximately half a mile
in diameter now occupies its lower portions,
as its predecessor did in the days before the
eruptions which changed the whole appear-
ance of the mountain. In 1902-3 there was
a little pool of muddy water in the bottom of
the bowl through which disturbing columns
or puffs of steam were continually rising.
In 1908 the pool was much larger, was yellow-
ish green in color and was not disturbed by
any eruptive discharges, but it did not fill the
bottom of the crater. In 1915 the lake is
apparently some hundreds of feet deeper
than it was in 1908 and occupies the entire
bottom of the crater, rising well up on
the vertical walls in most places. Careful
measurements with the theodolite established
the surface of the lake as being 760 feet below
the point where the trail from the western
side of the island reaches the rim of the crater,
or approximately 2140 feet above the level
of the sea.
The interior walls of the crater are coated
with moss and tufts of grass wherever there
are slopes of volcanic ash, and tree ferns and
bushes are reéstablishing themselves in the
ravines cut by the rains, while the vertical
faces of the old lava beds making up a large
part of the mountain add tones of reddish
and yellowish gray to the color effect.
The voleano on Guadeloupe, unlike those
of Martinique and St. Vincent, shows no de-
crease of temperature over the past. The
summit of the Soufriére gives opportunity for
temperature observations on the fumaroles
and the study of the escaping gases. These
fumaroles have been active, with varying
degrees of strength, during all the historic
period of the voleano. A marked increase of
discharge of sulphureted steam took place at
the time of the eruptions of Martinique and
St. Vincent, and an area several acres in
extent was then added to the active region.
The vents maintain to-day the force of their
discharge, but the temperature does not in
any case exceed 100 degrees C. (212 degrees
F.). The eastern member of the twin
islands forming Guadeloupe is sedimentary
in origin, and presents geological facts of
value in their bearing on the general history
of the Antilles.
GROUND-SLOTH FROM A CAVE IN PATAGONIA
By W. D. Matthew
OLONEL ROOSEVELT has recently
ic placed on deposit with the Museum
three fossil specimens of remarkable
interest. These are a fragment of the skin
and hair, a piece of the bone and a mass of
dung of an extinct ground-sloth from the cave
at Last Hope Inlet in Patagonia, presented to
him by Senor Moreno, director of the La
Plata Museum, near Buenos Aires.
The great ground-sloths of South America
are among the most remarkable and inter-
esting of the giant quadrupeds which formerly
inhabited that country. Many skeletons
have been found, especially in the Pampean
formation of Argentina, and a fine series of
them is shown in the Quaternary mammal
hall. They were supposed however to have
been extinct for many thousands of years,
and it was a disputed point whether or no
they were contemporaries of primitive man
in that continent. The exploration of this
cave about fifteen years ago furnished abun-
dant proof that one species at least of these
strange animals survived to within a few
centuries of the present day, and was not
only contemporary with primitive man but
was in some sense of the word domesticated
by him. Numerous bones and pieces of
skin were disinterred from a layer composed
of dust and ground-sloth droppings beneath
the floor in a dry protected corner of the
cave, in company with tools or weapons of
stone and bone and bearing unmistakable
marks of being cut and fashioned artificially.
Bundles of grass spread as though intended
for fodder, and other indications showed that
the animals had been stabled or imprisoned
within the cave and fed by their captors.
The dry floor protected against damp and
weather has preserved skin and bones with
bits of tendon and dried flesh clinging to
them, and the hair is often in perfect condi-
tion. Making all reasonable allowance for
these favorable conditions, one can hardly
suppose that these remains are more than a
few centuries old. There is reason to believe
that they are not much less than that, and
that they antedated the arrival of white
settlers in this region. ‘
The skin is covered with a thick coat of
golden brown hair, of the same peculiar coarse
brittle texture as that of the modern tree-
sloth, the nearest living relative of the great
ground-sloths. In the under side of the skin
are imbedded numerous rounded nodules
of bone studded thickly enough to make it a
fairly effective defense against the attacks
of carnivora. Quantities of similar nodules
have been found associated with petrified
skeletons of ground-sloths and it had been
supposed but never before proved that they
were imbedded in the skin during life.
The bone fragment has remnants of the
dried flesh and tendons still adherent, and
shows clearly the marks of the tools used in
cutting it up. The mass of dried dung,
utterly unlike that of any living animal of
that region completes the illusion. It is
difficult indeed to believe that these are relics
of animals extinct for some hundreds of years.
But the rumors that the Grypotherium still
survives in the wilds of Patagonia, based
probably on the extraordinary freshness of
these remains, have been repeatedly investi-
gated by subsequent explorers and found to
be baseless.
Miss Dora Keen of Philadelphia, who visited
the locality a few years ago, has also presented
to the Museum a sample of hair of the ground-
sloth taken from this cave.
THE SOMAIKOLI DANCE AT SICHUMOVI
By F. S. Dellenbaugh
RTICLES in the March number of the
JOURNAL on dances of American In-
dians recalled to me that I have seen
several Indian dances in years past.
In 1884 I spent some weeks on the East Mesa
256
of what we then called the Moquis Villages,
now the Hopi, at that time a somewhat
remote region. There were no white men in
that country except three or four at Keam’s
trading post, fourteen miles from the East
THE SOMAIKOLI DANCE AT SICHUMOVI
Mesa, until one reached Hubbell’s Pueblo,
Colorado, forty-six miles from Keam’s, and
then thirty-five miles farther east at Fort
Defiance. To the south it was eighty miles
to the new town of Holbrook on the just
completed Atlantic and Pacific Railway, now
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé, and to the
west and north there was no camp or set-
tlement until the great cafion of the Colorado
was crossed and then it was about one hun-
dred miles to Kanab. The only other white
man in the Hopi Province at the time I was
there, was Dr. Jeremiah Sullivan, who lived
in Sichumovi with the chief, Anawita, and
had been to some extent initiated into that
tribe.
I had rented from Tom Polacka, a Hano
(Tewa) native, the top story of Tewa, a
single large room with a fireplace in one
corner, and with a porch in front of the door,
formed by the roof of the house below, where
I could smoke my pipe and easily imagine
myself, as I looked along the entire mesa
toward Walpi, much farther away from the
toiling world than actually I was.
On Saturday, November 8, I recorded in my
diary: To-day the Moquis have been making
great preparations for to-morrow which is a
great dance day. To-night they cleaned up
the rubbish and threw it over the cliff.
To-night is T6-td-ki-d, Tod-td-ki-pi or Tok-
tight-d, the “night of dancing.”
My diary for Sunday, November 9, further
records: To-day was a great one on this mesa.
About sunrise I heard the drum going at
Sichumovi and a great yelling, and getting
up I saw a crowd in the plaza, but the princi-
pal actors soon returned to their kiva. The
dancing did not begin again until about
eleven o’clock and then it did not stop until
sunset — dancing with singing and hammer-
ing on the drum. The drummer, with his
big drum, sat in the center of the plaza with
Six or seven singers, around whom was a
circle of about forty men, boys, women and
girls, all togged out in their best. ‘‘Mose”’
was there dressed all in black (cambric) and
did not look half so well as in his ordinary
clothes. It is strange what a fancy these
Indians and the Navajo have for black. One
man had on calico trousers, one leg one pat-
tern, the other another.
The women wore white blankets with red
borders and they had their hair done up in
quite a different fashion from the ordinary.
It was brought down smoothly and fastened
207
behind in a sort of long knot wrapped with
red yarn. Over the forehead from ear to ear
was a kind of thick fringe of black hair about
four inches long, sewed to a string and tied
about the head in such a manner that the
eyes were almost obscured. Their feet were
moccasined, which they are not on ordinary
occasions, and the buckskin of the top of the
moccasin swathed their legs, as when they
ride.
The members of the circle sang together as
the circle slowly moved from left to right.
Each man or boy chose a partner and joined
the circle with her. It was absurd to see a
tall Indian enter with a girl of only seven or
eight years. [I learned later that the older
girls were not permitted to take part].
Presently there was a shouting in the
direction of the kiva, ‘‘ Yah-hai— yah-hai,”’
very loud, and looking that way I perceived
a man coming, nude excepting for a kilt, and
painted yellow. On his head were feathers.
His hair was “banged’’ in front above the
eyes, cut short on the sides, and hung down
long behind. From his waist at the back
trailed afoxskin. In his right hand he carried
a gourd rattle painted green and white and
filled with small pebbles, judging from the
sound. In the left hand he carried a sort of
baton with a cloud symbol in the middle and a
free swinging pendant at either end. Imme-
diately behind him was one of the most
grotesque figures I have ever seen. It was
one of those innumerable Hopi ghosts, saints
or minor gods known as a “katcina,”’ covered
with all sorts of trappings, and heavy wrap-
ings about the head with the semblance of a
mask in front (the mask fantastically deco-
rated with green and other colors), a strong
bow in his right hand which he used as a staff
(the quiver being hung to his left side), and
in his left hand an ear of corn and a small
bent stick. He came prancing and dancing
and jumping after his leader in the most
extraordinary way. The deer hoofs hung
around his waist rattled loudly. He was
supposed to be blind. His leader rattled as
hard as he could rattle and advanced a few
steps toward the group shouting an incanta-
tion, then suddenly turned and faced the
kateina and yelled ‘‘Yah-hai — yah-hai’”’
at the top of his lungs. Then he walked on
shouting, the drummer thumped away on the
drum, the singers and dancers sang, and the
katcina capered about in frantic spasms of
tramps and jumps, never stopping for an
258
instant. They neared the circle, which
broke on one side, and as it became a semi-
circle, the dance ceased. The leader and
katcina then circled around the drum. The
leader shouted in the ear of the katcina at
frequent intervals his ‘“‘ Yah-hai — yah-hai”’
and yelled his incantation, waving the
balance-looking arrangement. This, by the
way, is the charm that attracts the katcina
and yet holds him off [Sullivan]. After several
rounds of this yelling, singing, shouting and
jumping, the leader returned to the kiva,
slowly followed by the skipping katcina.
The circle continued the dance, closing its
ranks, and so on until another leader and
katcina made their appearance. Sometimes
there were three or four at the same time and
then the noise was deafening.
All day long this continued, and all day I
stood my ground with camera and sketch
book, notwithstanding certain disapproving
looks from the dancers. At one time I
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
thought they meant to tell me to stop using
the camera but they did not do so; probably
as they had never seen a hand camera before,
they did not understand its nature. With
the plates manufactured then, and the slow
shutter, it was very difficult to get the swiftly
darting figures; and that day I was as much
of an object of interest to the visiting Navajo,
and the Hopi from the other towns, as were
the katcinas and the dancers. Nobody
molested me however and at sunset when the
long procession of katcinas and leaders had
passed through the village and received the
contributions of sacred meal and prayer
feathers from the populace, all weird enough
in the gloaming, I returned to my housetop
and slept without a break until Hoski, my
native boy, after his usual fashion, threw the
door open in the morning and set down the
olla of water which he always brought up
fresh from the spring near the foot of the
mesa, some seven hundred feet below.
MUSEUM NOTES
A JoINnT anthropological expedition will be
undertaken with the University of Colorado
of which the distinguished anthropologist,
Dr. Livingston Farrand, is now president.
The field party will be under the direction of
Mr. N.C. Nelson, assistant curator of anthro-
pology in this Museum, and Mr. E. H. Morris,
curator of the University Museum, and will
explore the little-known cliff-dwelling regions
of Colorado.
Tue New York Academy of Sciences has
published an essay on ‘‘Climate and Evo-
lution” by Dr. W. D. Matthew. This is an
attempt to find in the slow cyclic climatic
changes of geologic time a fundamental cause
controlling the course of evolution and geo-
graphical dispersal of animals and plants.
The author accepts the view that the deep
ocean basins have been substantially perma-
nent during the later ages of geologic time,
the continents alternately emerged and more
or less completely united to the northward,
or submerged and extensively overflowed
and isolated by shallow seas. The continen-
tal shelf at or near the one hundred fathom
line marks the extreme limit of emergence.
The epochs of elevation have been associated
with arid climates and polar cold; the epochs
of submergence with warm moist uniform
climates. The record of the evolution and
dispersal of the various races of mammals
is interpreted in accord with this theory,
that of the lower vertebrates briefly outlined.
Tue New York Aquarium gave its second
annual reception to the members of the New
York Zodlogical Society on the evening of
May fifth. About five hundred guests were
present and were entertained with motion
pictures of marine life. The Aquarium had
just come into possession of a new collection
of tropical fishes from Key West, which were
on exhibition, and two more porpoises had
been secured for the porpoise pool.
Some years ago Mr. G. Frederick Norton
began a special study of the so-called blue or
“‘olacier’’ bear (which had been named Ursus
emmonsi). These bears are confined to the
vicinity of Saint Elias range of mountains in
Alaska and have a very limited distribution.
Mr. Norton secured a number of skins and
skulls which have satisfactorily demonstrated
that the blue bear is only a color phase
of the black bear (Ursus americanus). The
black bear apparently is a polychromatic
animal and has several well-marked color
MUSEUM NOTES
phases which in some instances are very local.
A few years ago the Museum secured two
beautiful skins and skulls of the white bear
from Gribbell Island, British Columbia,
(which had been named Ursus kermodet),
through Mr. Kermode, curator of the Pro-
vincial Museum, Victoria, British Columbia.
There seems to be little doubt that instead of
being a new species, the white bear is also a
color phase of the black bear. The so-called
cinnamon bear is a well-known color phase of
this same species. Very often in a single
litter black and cinnamon bears are found
together. The Museum has in mind the
preparation of a group showing all of these
color phases of the black bear. Through a
gift to the Museum by Mr. Norton of a mag-
nificent specimen of a glacier bear taken in
Disenchantment Bay, Yakutat, Alaska, there
remains only the lack of a cinnamon bear to
allow the construction of such a group.
THE department of invertebrate zodlogy
will actively participate in the Porto Rico
Survey during the coming summer. Dr. F.
E. Lutz and Mr. A. J. Mutchler will prose-
cute entomological investigations in various
parts of the island; Mr. Roy W. Miner and
Mr. H. Mueller will establish headquarters
at Guanica Harbor for studies upon marine
invertebrates; while Professor Raymond C.
Osburn will carry on dredging operations
mainly along the southwest shores, codper-
ating with Mr. Miner. For several weeks
Dr. A. G. Mayer of the Carnegie Institution
and a group of zodlogists will also be carrying
on special investigations about Guanica.
SINCE the last issue of the JouRNAL the fol-
lowing persons have become members of the
Museum:
Patron, Mrs. BASHFoRD DEAN;
Fellow, Mr. Henry Forp;
Life Members, Dr. EM1ILie SNETHLAGE, and
Messrs. FREDERIC ALMy CAMMANN, JAMES
P. CwHaprn, ANDRE DE Coppet, FRANK
LeGranp GILLIss, HERBERT Lane, P. W.
LIVERMORE, HERMAN STuTzeER and JAMES
B. WiLBur;
Annual Members, Mrs. GrEorGE CoNnRAD
Coox, Mrs. Racuet Lenox Porter, Miss
Autce L. CuarK, Miss EvizaBetuH Doucuas,
Dr. P. Maxwentt Fosuay, Dr. Harry
Justin Roppy, Dr. Cuarues H. Youna,
and Messrs. I. p—E Bruyn, Grorce H.
Capp, HERBERT STANLEY CONNELL, HENRY
259
Doscuer, FREDERIC HUNTINGTON DouGLAs,
Houutanp S. Dusit, Joun M. Gienn, F.
HERRMANN, AuGust Kuun, Jutius Kun,
Lee Lauriz, Ivy L. Lez, E. A. McInHENny,
WiuuramM C. Murpny, D. E. Pomeroy, RoGER
M. Poor, Ropert W. Sayues, H. JERMAIN
Sitocum, Jr., FRANK B. Smipt, JAcoB STEIN-
HARDT, CARLL TUCKER, WILLIAM YOUNG
WESTERVELT and FREDERICK N. WILLSON.
Mr. Hersert Lana has been appointed
assistant in mammalogy and Mr. James P.
Chapin assistant in ornithology. Mr. Lang
and Mr. Chapin have also been elected life
members of the Museum in recognition of
their efficient services in conducting the
Congo expedition.
Mrs. BasHrorp DEAN has recently been
elected patron of the Museum in acknowledg-
ment of her recent contributions toward the
preparation of the bibliography of fishes;
Mr. Henry Ford has been made fellow, in
appreciation of his generosity in presenting
to the institution the bust of John Burroughs;
and Dr. Emilie Snethlage, life member, in
recognition of her practical interest in the
development of the Museum’s South Ameri-
can collections.
Dr. CHrestTeR A. REEDS and Mr. Prentice
B. Hill of the department of geology and
invertebrate paleontology will leave on May
29 to carry on stratigraphic and palzontologic
investigations in Porto Rico in connection
with the Porto Rico Survey.
Messrs. H. E. AnrHony and D. S. Batu
have returned from an expedition to the
mountains of the Isthmus of Darien in eastern
Panama, bringing with them a collection of
1100 birds and 250 mammals, many of which
are new to the Museum’s collections and some
undoubtedly new to science. These col-
lectors left for the field the latter part of
January, but owing to the inaccessibility of
the country to be explored, they had only
about two months in which to accomplish
their work before the rainy season set in.
It took them nearly a month to reach the
ground where they were to do their collecting
and almost as long to return from there. At
the City of Panama they were joined by Mr.
W. B. Richardson, who had been doing some
preliminary work in Darien. The party left
the City of Panama on February 8 and going
260
down the coast in a gasolene launch to El
Real, began to ascend the Tuyra River, a
river several miles across at the mouth. In
the lower part of the river they were obliged
to leave the launch and take to canoes, travel-
ing in this way as far as the foothills of the
mountain. There they got natives for pack-
ers and carried their outfit for three days’
journey to the foot of Mount Tacarcuna,
from which point most of the work was done.
Later camp was made at the very highest
point on the mountain where there was any
water. From this site on the mountain range
that forms the boundary between Panama and
Colombia, the Atlantic could be seen in the
distance. The region, probably because of its
inaccessibility, has never before been explored
biologically. Indeed the Indians there had
never seen a Northern white man before.
Its fauna presents an important scientific
problem because it seems to indicate that the
mountain range which forms the Isthmus of
Darien was at one time connected with the
western Andes of northern Colombia.
In 1913 Dr. Wiliam T. Hornaday, advo-
cate of wild life protection, decided that the
cause could not be adequately supported
through annual subscriptions. He deter-
mined upon the creation of what is now
known as the ‘‘Permanent Wild Life Protec-
tion Fund,” for nation-wide campaign work
during the next one hundred years, the “in-
come only for use on the firimg-line.” The
wild life protective principles are formulated as
follows: Stop the sale of wild game; promote
laws to prevent unnaturalized aliens from
owning or using rifles and shot-guns; stop all
spring and late-winter shooting; stop all
killing of insectivorous birds for food, and of
all birds for millinery purposes; increase the
number of game preserves; oppose the use
of all extra deadly automatic, auto-loading and
“pump” guns in hunting, and secure the pas-
sage of laws against them; secure perpetual
close seasons for all species of wild life that
are threatened with extinction from our fauna.
The plan has already received a remarkable
series of indorsements. The minimum fixed
upon was $100,000, and up to date $73,050
has been subscribed. This is the second
largest endowment fund in existence for the
benefit of wild life. The Banking Trustees
of the Fund are Messrs. Clark Williams and
A. Barton Hepburn. Dr. Hornaday, as the
ampaigning trustee, expends the annual
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
income of the Fund in accordance with the
principles originally formulated. A rather
novel feature of the plan provides that the
names of all persons who make large sacrifices
for the formation of the Fund shall be known
as Founders, and that their names shall
be permanently associated with the Fund
and its results. The most important work
to be undertaken in the immediate future
under the auspices of this Fund, is the
promotion of a very comprehensive plan
for the creation of game sanctuaries in
national forests. This campaign will begin
on September first and will be prosecuted
with much vigor until complete success is
achieved.
THROUGH interest created by the Roosevelt
South American expedition, the Museum has
received six hundred birds and fifty mammals,
presented by the Goeldi Museum of Para,
through its director of zodlogy, Dr. Emilie
Snethlage. The members of the North
American expedition when passing through
Pard in May, 1914, called on Dr. Snethlage
to examine the rich collections of Amazonian
fauna which she, and her predecessor Doctor
Goeldi, have amassed. Dr. Snethlage writes
that shortly after the Roosevelt party passed
through Parad she herself embarked on an
expedition into the unexplored portions of
the Upper Xingt, on which she was absent
seven months. Unfortunately, within a
month after her departure from Parad, the
middle finger of her right hand was bitten off
to the base by a piranha, the small man-eating
fish of South America.
AN exhibit to illustrate the principles of
Mendelian heredity has recently been in-
stalled in the Darwin hall and is temporarily
labeled. As at present exhibited, there are
five panels showing as many instances of
inheritance in plants and animals: first the
classical case of the seed color of the common
pea, based on Mendel’s original experiments;
second, complex inheritance as illustrated by
the colors of the sweet pea, based on the
experiments of Bateson; and third, three
panels to illustrate the inheritance of coat
color in the common rat, namely, the effect
on the third generation of crossing one, two
and three varieties of unit characters respec-
tively. A more detailed account of this
exhibit will be given in a future issue of the
JOURNAL.
MUSEUM NOTES
Tue exhibit in the Darwin hall showing
variation under domestication has been
rearranged and forms one of the items in a
series illustrating Darwinian principles. In
this case the chief variations of the dog, the
pigeon and the common barnyard fowl are
shown.
Mr. N. C. Netson of the department of
anthropology is engaged in excavating the
prehistoric and early historic ruined villages
in the neighborhood of Santa Fé.
“ THE Evolution of the Jaw Muscles of Ver-
tebrates”’ was the subject of a recent presenta-
tion before the New York Academy of Sciences
by Prof. L. A. Adams, who has been investigat-
ing this subject in the Museum laboratory of
vertebrate evolution. By means of the stere-
opticon he exhibited a series of very clear
drawings of the skull and jaw muscles of a
score or more of representative vertebrates of
all classes, and showed by what comparatively
slight successive changes the arrangement of
the jaw muscles of primitive fishes has given
rise to the various modifications that are
characteristic of the higher types.
THE civic exhibition at the National Arts
Club is one of the most instructive yet
brought together on the problems touching
artistic betterment of New York City.
Maps, photographs, architectural designs and
sculptural models bring out many proposed
plans for beautifying Riverside Drive and its
docks, besides various bridges, streets and
parks. Among suggested features for deco-
ration of buildings may be noted mural de-
signs by E. W. Deming and WillS. Taylor and
sculptural animal designs by Carl E. Akeley,
all of the American Museum’s staff and at
present engaged in work for the artistic im-
provement of the Museum buildings.
SUBSTANTIAL progress has been made in
installing the new storage system for dino-
saurs and other fossil reptiles. Most of
these large and heavy specimens have hitherto
been laid out on mats on wooden tables
ranked three deep, filling up the large dino-
saur storeroom at the top of the southwest
tower wing; the remainder stored in wooden
trays piled up in every available corner of
the storerooms and laboratories. The ar-
rangement was originally intended as a
temporary one, but for lack of a better equip-
ment has lasted fifteen vears. It was some-
261
what cumbersome, the larger fossils were
exposed to dust and risk of breakage, the
smaller ones difficult of access, and the danger
of serious fire damage became continually
greater as constant additions crowded the
collections more and more.
The new system will provide ultimately
three double stacks of steel racks twelve feet
high with strong but light steel framed trays
three by four feet, and wall racks for the
smaller wooden trays. The specimens are
laid out on mats in the large trays and lifted
up by a small movable elevator. The sys-
tem is adjustable and compact, and en-
ables the large heavy and often fragile bones
to be moved with safety and convenience.
The great saving in space is shown by the
fact that the one double stack now installed
accommodates most of the contents of the
storeroom, so full under the old system as to
be unmanageably crowded. Other collec-
tions which for lack of room were temporarily
placed elsewhere will find ample storage space
and security in the second stack now under
construction and in the wall racks. The
third stack is planned for accommodation of
future collections but will not be installed at
present.
The trays will be protected from dust by
fireproofed covers and curtains. The risk of
fire is now slight as there is practically noth-
ing to burn except the old wooden trays which
must be retained for the present to contain
the smaller specimens, and the adequate
space around these will make it easy to con-
trol any fire that might get started. The
room now available to lay out dinosaur
skeletons for study and comparison has been
urgently needed for research work on these
collections. The lighting of the storeroom
has also been greatly improved.
THE Southwestern Anthropological Society
for promotion of research work in the history
and ethnology of the Southwest has recently
been organized at Santa Fé. Dr. Livingston
Farrand, president of the University of Colo-
rado and formerly curator in the American
Museum, was elected president and Dr. Paul
Radin, secretary. Dr. P. E. Goddard and
Mr. N. C. Nelson of this Museum have been
invited to become members of the committee
on research.
Mr. Cuarutes W. MEap, assistant curator
of anthropology, in charge of the South
262
American collections, has just completed an
exhaustive investigation of the native copper
and bronze industry of the New World.
The primary part of the investigation was the
chemical analysis of one hundred and sixty
Museum specimens, so selected as to give
typical series for each important locality.
The laboratory tests were made by Mr. W. A.
Wissler, A. M. Mr. Mead finds by corre-
lating the chemical determinations with the
distribution and types of implements, that
the prehistoric Peruvians thoroughly under-
stood the art of making bronze from copper
and tin. In addition, he has brought to-
gether the early fragmentary accounts of
Spanish explorers as to how these metals
were worked, which became more intelligible
in the light of the chemical studies. Among
the obscure and little-known sources is the
Arte De Los Metales by Alvaro Alonso Barba,
published early in the seventeenth century, a
copy of which was kindly placed at Mr.
Mead’s disposal by Mr. E. P. Mathewson of
the Anaconda Copper Mining Company.
The full report of this study will soon appear
in the Anthropological Papers of the Museum.
Dr. Rosert H. Lowrie and Mr. ALANSON
SKINNER of the department of anthropology
have just completed five publication reports
upon their last year’s field work among our
western Indians. Dr. Lowie made a special
study of the societies and social organiza-
tions of the Ute and Shoshone, while Mr.
Skinner investigated the same aspects of
primitive culture among the Iowa, Kansa
and Ponca tribes. These reports will appear
in a special volume of the Anthropological
Papers now nearing completion, treating the
societies and social organizations of the
Plains Indians in an exhaustive manner.
On April 9, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers of Cam-
bridge University, England, visited the de-
partment of anthropology of the Museum,
having stopped a day in New York on his
return from attendance at the Australian
meeting of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science and a subsequent
visit to several of the South Sea Islands. Dr.
Rivers is known among _ anthropologists
throughout the world for his intensive re-
searches into the ethnology of the Torres
Straits Islanders and of the Todas of southern
India. More recently he investigated vari-
ous of the Melanesian groups as director of
the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition. He has
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
profoundly stimulated ethnological thought
by developing the genealogical method as a
means of research in the study of social
usages and by directing attention to the im-
portance of kinship nomenclature. His latest
publications, Kinship and Social Organisation
and The History of Melanesian Society are
largely devoted to the latter topic and form a
landmark in the history of the subject. At the
Museum, Dr. Rivers examined with interest
the collections in the South Sea hall and dis-
cussed the investigations of kinship terminolo-
gies of North American and Oceanian peoples.
Mr. Russet J. Coins has presented to
the Museum an eighteen-foot female Manta
(devilfish or giant ray). This was caught on
April 11 in the Gulf of Mexico, some one
hundred miles south of Tampa, after a danger-
ous twenty-two-minute fight with the giant
fish. Mr. Coles was instrumental last year in
procuring for the Museum two specimens of
Manta, respectively eleven and seven and one-
half feet across, but knowing that the species
reached a much larger size, he has not rested
until a finer specimen was secured. The
one just captured is, as far as we are
aware, the largest recorded on our Atlantic
coast, for while the species is popularly said
in books to reach a width of twenty feet, none
of these giants has as yet come to hand. A
reproduction of this eighteen-foot animal
will make a magnificent addition to our
exhibit of fishes.
In the New York City building at the
Panama-Pacific Exposition, to the right of
the entrance, is an alcove containing photo-
graphic exhibits of the several museums and
libraries of New York City. The selected
exhibits from the American Museum of Natu-
ral History aims to indicate to the general
public the institution’s scientific scope, its
financial status, and its place in the city as
an educational institution.
Dr. Rosert H. Lowte will leave early in
June for field work among the Kiowa Indians
of Oklahoma, the Hopi of Arizona and the
Paiute of Nevada. From the Kiowa Dr.
Lowie hopes to secure information concerning
their military societies; the investigations
among the Hopi will cover social organization
or clan system; and the work in Nevada is a
continuation of that undertaken last year as
part of the Museum’s extensive survey of
Shoshonean tribes.
MUSEUM NOTES
Tue American Ethnological Society, which
was founded in 1842 by Mr. Albert Gallatin,
has adopted a new constitution with a view to
incorporating a society for the safeguarding
of its growing endowment fund.
Tue Museum has recently secured a large
collection consisting chiefly of pottery taken
from the island of Marajo, Brazil, by Mr.
Algot Lange. This pottery was secured on
Mr. Lange’s second expedition to South
America, the first having been made for the
University Museum of Philadelphia.
A REPRESENTATIVE collection of Salvador
archeology which Dr. Herbert J. Spinden
obtained last summer by arrangement with
the government of Salvador, has lately ar-
rived at the Museum and has been installed
in the Mexican hall. The specimens include
pottery and stone, and represent a long period
of art with several distinct phases. There are
many examples of archaic pottery which may
date from before the time of Christ, as well as
beautiful painted vases of the Maya civiliza-
tion and glazed ware of the Aztec period.
Proressor C.-E. A. Winstow has been
appointed to the newly established Anna
M. L. Lauder professorship of public health
at the Yale Medical School. He will give up
his connection with the New York State
Department of Health and the Teachers’
College to take up this work next fall, but will
continue to act as curator of public health at
the American Museum.
At the May meeting of the New York
Academy of Sciences Dr. Charles H. Town-
send exhibited moving pictures of recent
Biological Survey dredging operations in
Long Island Sound by the United States
Fisheries steamer ‘Fish Hawk.” The fauna
of the muddy bottom in the middle of the
Sound, Dr. Townsend said, is considerably
different from that along the margins where
oyster beds abound. It includes great num-
bers of spider crabs, flounders and whelks.
Dr. Charles B. Davenport, director of the
Carnegie Station for Experimental Evolution
at Cold Spring Harbor, described the fauna
of the brackish waters on the north shores of
Long Island and showed how different forms
which are dependent upon salt water, such as
mussels, Littorea and barnacles, manage to
263
live in brackish water if they can get purer
salt water at high tide. Professor Raymond
C. Osburn read a paper on the ‘‘ Geographical
Distribution of the Bryozoa of the Atlantic
Coast of North America.” Nearly three
hundred species of Bryozoa are known to
inhabit the coastal shelf down to the hundred-
fathom line. The species fall for the most
part into three groups: (1) cosmopolitan
species or those of wide range; (2) northern
species often circumpolar, which range
southward along the coast; (3) tropical
species, which range northward from Florida.
Charts indicating the relation of the bryo-
zoan distribution to ocean temperatures and
currents were exhibited.
Dr. RaymMonp C. Osspurn of the New
York Aquarium, assistant professor of zodl-
ogy in Barnard College, Columbia Univer-
sity, has accepted the professorship of biology
in the Connecticut College for Women at
New London. He will be greatly missed by
his colleagues in New York, who hope that he
will be able to keep in touch with his scientific
interests here.
Notice of the death of the distinguished
English paleontologist and zoélogist, Richard
Lydekker occurs in Nature for April 29. Dr.
Lydekker was well known as a high authority
upon mammals both living and extinct. His
most notable contributions to scientific re-
search dealt with the fossil mammals and
dinosaurs of India and Argentina, but he is
perhaps better known as the author of a
number of excellent text-books and treatises
of a more popular kind dealing with the liv-
ing and extinct mammalia. Among these
may be especially mentioned: A Geographic
History of Mammals, Mammals Living and
Extinct (Flower and Lydekker), Manual of
Paleontology (Nicholson and Lydekker), The
New Natural History, Deer of All Lands, The
Horse and its Relatives, The Ox and its Kin-
dred, Game Animals of Africa, Game Animals
of India, Mostly Mammals (a collection of
essays). He was the author of the Cata-
logues of Fossil Mammals, Reptiles, Am-
phibians and Birds in the British Museum,
of numerous articles in the last edition of the
Encyclopedia Britannica, a frequent con-
tributor to Nature, The Field, Knowledge,
Science Progress and other English periodicals,
to the Proceedings of the Zoélogical Society
and other journals of research.
264
Mr. Howarp McCormick has begun work
on the canvas for the background of a second
Indian habitat group to be placed in the
Southwest Indian hall. The group represents
Apache Indians engaged in various occupa-
tions under a flat-topped shelter of boughs
and gives as a background a view of the San
Carlos river valley and neighboring moun-
tains where these Apache live. Studies for
the group were made by Mr. McCormick in
Arizona in 1914.
THe Museum has recently secured by
purchase through the Dodge fund, from Mr.
P. A. Bungart, a local collector of Lorain,
Ohio, a valuable collection of Dinichthyids
from the Devonian shales of Ohio. The
collection of thirty-three specimens includes
several complete crania and a number of
other remains of high scientific value.
Mr. F. A. Watson is on the north coast of
Santo Domingo making collections for the
department of invertebrate zodlogy. The ex-
penses of his trip are being covered by Mr.
B. Preston Clark of Boston, Massachusetts.
Mr. Clarence R. Halter, who is spending May
and June in the same region, is collecting
reptiles and batrachians for the Museum.
Tue sledge used by Admiral Peary on the
expedition which reached the North Pole,
has been loaned to the Oakland Museum for
exhibition during the period of the Panama-
Pacific exposition.
Tue purchase of the collections made by
Mr. Richard Douglas in Matebeleland, South
Africa, a few years ago, secures to the Museum
a large series of prehistoric stone implements
and a considerable series of baskets and other
ethnological specimens, as well as small col-
lections of reptiles, mammals and birds from
the region.
Two accessions of interest recently received
by the department of anthropology are an
Indian-made canoe, weighing thirty-nine
pounds and decorated with beads on the bow,
the gift of the Hudson Bay Importing Com-
pany, and a beautiful feather hammock from
Brazil presented by Mr. Charles R. Flint.
A PRELIMINARY report on the fishes ob-
tained in Porto Rico last summer by Mr.
John T. Nichols is published in the American
Museum Bulletin. Mr. Nichols lists twenty-
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
two species not previously recorded from the
island and describes two new species. His
work on the fishes of Porto Rico was done in
connection with the biological survey of the
island made by the New York Academy of
Sciences for the insular government.
Amone the recent anthropological publi-
cations of the Museum is one on Pawnee
Indian Societies by James R. Murie, a dis-
tinguished Pawnee chief. For several years
Mr. Murie has been gathering data from the
oldest men of his race and under the immedi-
ate supervision of Dr. Clark Wissler, has
prepared several manuscripts for publication,
of which the present issue is the first.
Proressor A. L. Kronper, head of the de-
partment of anthropology in the University of
California, will spend the next academic year
in New York City as a guest of the Museum.
He has also volunteered to assist in the
Museum field work by spending the summer
in the Pueblo of Zuni. Professor Kroeber
was formerly connected with this Museum,
when he distinguished himself in the investi-
gation of American decorative art.
Dr. Frank E. Lurz, of the Museum’s de-
partment of invertebrate zodlogy, has been
appointed a member of the board of editors
of the New York State List of Insects. Mr.
Charles W. Leng, honorary curator of Coleop-
tera of the Museum, is also a member.
GENERAL THomas H. Hupparp, lawyer,
veteran of the Civil War and director in many
corporations, died at his home in New York
City on May 19 after an illness of but a few
days. General Hubbard had been a member
of the American Museum of Natural History
since 1875 and had been somewhat closely
associated with it through his interest in
Arctic explorations. He was an active mem-
ber of the Peary Arctic Club from the date
of its first meeting in 1899 and was its presi-
dent after the death of Mr. Morris K. Jesup
in 1908. It was his financial aid together
with that of Mr. Jesup, Mr. Crocker and other
members of the Club, which made possible
the discovery of the North Pole by Peary.
Several Arctic geographical names, such as
Hubbard Glacier and Cape Thomas Hubbard,
bear witness to Peary’s acknowledgment of
General Hubbard’s aid. General Hubbard
was also one of the most generous contrib-
utors to the Crocker Land expedition.
The American Museum of Natural History
Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City
Open free to the public on every day in the year.
The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the
Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people.
It is dependent
upon private subscriptions and the fees from members for procuring needed additions to the
collections and for carrying on explorations in America and other parts of the world The
membership fees are,
Atmmitaly Wlembersict,. Giecs.. «7.0 cresctornsencnate $ 10
Sustaining Members (annually)........ 25
PafedMMlembersicvsckrs we tak ence ehetthe oi she avers 100
GN OWS: ovo aeteh oe roles le okeit Sey oy buat iol 500
Patrons eee ty soe cee tats sisters cols ree once $1,000
Associate Benefactors............... 10,000
Associate Founders... ...<.0.0.60<¢0% 25,000
Benefactors co. Soniacalstaente americans 50,000
Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request to members and teachers by the
department of public education.
Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone
the department for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied. Lectures to
classes may also be arranged for.
of children.
In all cases the best results are obtained with small groups
The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working collection
of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and abroad.
The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays excepted —
from 9 a. M. to 5 P.M.
The Technical Publications of the Museum comprise the Memoirs, Bulletin and
Anthropological Papers, the Memoirs and Bulletin edited by J. A. Allen, the Anthropological
Papers by Clark Wissler.
the institution.
These publications cover the field and laboratory researches of
The Popular Publications of the Museum comprise the JourRNAL, edited by Mary
Cynthia Dickerson, the Handbooks, Leaflets and General Guide.
The following list gives
some of the popular publications; complete lists, of both technical and popular publications,
may be obtained from the Librarian.
POPULAR PUBLICATIONS
HANDBOOKS
Nortu AMERICAN INDIANS OF THE Piatns. By Clark
Wissler, Ph.D. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.
INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST. By Pliny Earle Goddard,
Ph.D. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.
ANIMALS OF THE Past. By Frederic A. Lucas, Sc.D.
Paper, 35 cents.
ILLUSTRATED GUIDE LEAFLETS
GENERAL GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS.
issued December, 1914. \ Price, 25 cents.
Tue CoLuLectTION oF MINERALS. By Louis P. Grata-
cap, A.M. Price, 5 cents.
NortuH AMERICAN RUMINANTS.
Price, 10 cents.
Tue ANCIENT BASKET MAKERS OF
Uran. By George H. Pepper.
PrimitTiIvE Art. Price, 15 cents.
Tue Birpbs oF THE VICINITY OF New York City. By
Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D. Price, 15 cents.
PerRuvIAN Mummies. By Charles W. Mead. Price,
10 cents.
Tue METEORITES IN THE FOYER OF THE AMERICAN
Museum or Naturau History. By Edmund Otis
Hovey, Ph.D. Price, 10 cents.
Tue Hasitrat Groups or Norra AMERICAN Brrps.
By Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D. Price, 15 cents.
New edition
By J. A. Allen, Ph.D.
SouTHEASTERN
Price, 10 cents.
Tue InpraAns or MANnATTAN ISLAND AND VICINITY.
By Alanson Skinner. Jn preparation.
Tue Strokes PAINTINGS REPRESENTING GREENLAND
Eskimo. Price, 5 cents,
Brier History oF ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.
10 cents.
TREES AND Forestry. By Mary Cynthia Dickerson,
B.S. A new edition in course of preparation.
Tue ProrecTION oF River AND HARBOR WATERS FROM
Municipat Wastes. By Charles-Edward Amory
Winslow, M.S. Price, 10 cents.
PLANT Forms In Wax. By E. C. B. Fassett.
10 cents.
Tue Evo.uTIon or THE Horse.
Ph.D. Price, 20 cents.
Price,
Price,
By W. D. Matthew,
REPRINTS
Tue Grounp StotH Groupe. By W. D. Matthew,
Ph.D. Price, 5 cents.
MeEtHops anp ReEsuLts iv HERPETOLOGY.
Cynthia Dickerson, B.S. Price, 5 cents.
Tue WuHarr Pitre Group. By Roy W. Miner, A.B.
Price, 5 cents.
Tue SEA Worm Group.
Price, 10 cents.
Tue ANCESTRY OF THE EDENTATES.
thew, Ph.D. Price, 5 cents.
By Mary
By Roy W. Miner, A.B.
By W. D. Mat-
Protected entrance to the Altamira cave, near Santillana,
northern Spain. Long ago the thinner part of the cavern roof
fell in, creating a sink-hole from which one could walk in under
the roof that still held. Here, near the entrance, Solutréan
and Magdalenian men made their homes for a time and in a
side gallery left a most remarkably preserved collection of
paintings, the admiration of both the artist and naturalist
who sees them. Later the wall entrance was sealed up by
débris and was accidentally discovered in modern times by a
fox hunter.
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The American Museum of Natural History
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
President
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
First Vice-President
CLEVELAND H. DopGE
Treasurer
CHARLES LANIER
Second Vice-President
J. P. Morcan
Secretary
ADRIAN ISELIN, JR.
JoHN Purroy MitcHet, Mayor or THE City or NEw YorK
Wiuu1AM A. PRENDERGAST, COMPTROLLER OF THE City or NEW YORK
CaBot WaRD, PRESIDENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
’ GrorcE F. BAKER
FREDERICK F. BREWSTER
JosEPH H. CHOATE
R. Fuitron Curtine
Tuomas DreWitr CuryLEeR
JAMES DouGLAs
Henry C. Frick
MapIson GRANT
Anson W. Harp
ARCHER M. HUNTINGTON
ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES
WALTER B. JAMES
Seta Low
OgpEN MILs
Percy R. PynEe
Joun B. TREVOR
Fetrx M. WarBuRG
GrorGeE W. WICKERSHAM
A. D. JUILLIARD
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS
Director
Freperic A. Lucas
Assistant Treasurer
Tue UNITED States Trust CoMPANY
Assistant Secretary
GerorGcE H. SHERWOOD
or New Yorke
SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Freperic A. Lucas, Se.D., Director
Geology and Invertebrate Paleontology
Epmunp Oris Hovey, Ph.D., Curator
CuHester A. ReEeEps, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Mineralogy
L. P. Gratacap, A.M., Curator
GerorGE F. Kunz, Ph.D., Honorary Curator Gems
Woods and Forestry
Mary Cyntrsaia Dickerson, B.S., Curator
Invertebrate Zoology
Henry E. Crampton, Ph.D., Curator
Roy W. Miner, A.B., Asst. Curator
Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
L. P. Gratacap, A.M., Curator Mollusca
A. J. MutcuHuer, Assistant
Frank E. Watson, B.S., Assistant
W. M. Waeeter, Ph.D., Hon. Curator Social
Insects
A. L. TREADWELL, Ph.D., Hon. Curator Annulata
CHARLES W. Lena, B.S., Hon. Curator Coleoptera
Ichthyology and Herpetology
BasHrorp Dean, Ph.D., Curator Emeritus
Louis Hussaxor, Ph.D., Curator Ichthyology
Joun T. Nicuots, A.B., Asst. Cur. Recent Fishes
Mary Cynruaia Dickerson, B.S., Assoc. Curator
Herpetology
Mammalogy and Ornithology
J. A. Auten, Ph.D., Curator
Frank M. Cuapman, Sc.D., Curator Ornithology
Roy C. Anprews, A.M., Asst. Cur. Mammalogy
W. DewW. Mi ter, Asst. Curator Ornithology
H. E. Antuony, B.S., Assistant Mammalogy
HERBERT Lana, Assistant Mammalogy
James P. Cuapin, Assistant Ornithology
Vertebrate Paleontology
Henry FairFiELD Ossorn, LL.D., D.Sc., Curator
Emeritus
W. D. MattHew, Ph.D., Curator
WaLTEeR GRANGER, Assoc. Curator [Mammals]
Barnum Brown, A.B., Assoc. Curator [Reptiles]
Wiwturam K. Gregory, Ph.D., Assoc. in Palwon-
tology
Anthropology
CuiarRK WIss_LER, Ph.D., Curator
Purny E. Gopparp, Ph.D., Curator Ethnology
Rosert H. Lowie, Ph.D., Assoc. Curator
HersBert J. Spinpen, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Nets C. Netson, M.L., Asst. Curator
CuHarRLes W. Meap, Asst. Curator
ALANSON SKINNER, Asst. Curator
Haruan I. Smitu, Hon. Curator Archzeology
Anatomy and Physiology
RautpeH W. Tower, Ph.D., Curator
Public Health
CuHaRLES-Epwarp A. WinsLow, M.S., Curator
IsraEL J. Kuiauer, B.S., Assistant
Public Education
Grorce H. SHERwoop, A.M., Curator
G. Cuype FisHer, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Ann E. Tuomas, Ph.B., Assistant
Books and Publications
RaurexH W. Tower, Ph.D., Curator
Ipa RicHarpson Hoop, A.B., Asst. Librarian
THe AMERICAN Museum Journal
VoLUME XV OCTOBER, 1915 NUMBER 6
CONTENTS
Cover, Kikuyu Boy, British East Africa
Photograph by Carl E. Akeley
Selicsvorerecent .Miuseunal Grolpss 2a: tes. oo oh: ack aioe ena ee Se eee 266
Laysan Istanp Brrp Group.— University of Lowa
Fur SEAts on Kirovi Rooxery.— American Museum of Natural History, New York
VirGinta Deer IN THE ApIRONDACKS.— Brooklyn Institute Museum
NEAR THE END OF 4 TrGeR Hunrt.— Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, England
Tyrannosaurus, the Largest Flesh-eating Animal that Ever Lived
BarnuM Brown 271
With illustrations of the model for a proposed group in the American Museum and of the
first mounted skeleton for this group
Story of the discovery and excavation of the petrified bones of these gigantic dinosaurs in
the Bad Lands of Montana
US he Ole te COMO as). Sd vow lee tiie | ieee Ne oem JAMES P. CHAPIN 281
Illustrations from photographs by Herbert Lang
Reproductions in Duotone of African Photographs. ................ opposite 292
From the work of Herbert Lang and Carl E. Akeley
thes ral or Wari Viacedonia. +... .ee.t.0,. aos Davip STARR JORDAN 293
The Penguins of South Georgia................ RosBert CusHMAN Murpuy 301
The story of the ‘‘kings,”’ following the story of the ‘‘Johnnies’’ in the last issue of the
JOURNAL
Ancient Gold Art in the New World.............. HERBERT J. SPINDEN 307
Collection of 15,000 specimens in gold, stone and pottery excavated from the ruins of a pre-
historic city in Costa Rica — Discovery made during the clearing of a great banana planta-
tion at Mercedes by Mr. Minor C. Keith
Brederie- Ward Putnam, 1839-1915... 1.23. o.oo wa CLARK WISSLER 315
Brief review of the work of one of the most eminent of American anthropologists
Avestan ORES caete ceststl bok eee ac abl Anise pekabo el eee LL. ee Sli
Including illustration of white rhino presented to the American Museum by Mr. John H.
Prentice
Mary Cyntuta Dickerson, Editor
Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History, at the
‘Cosmos Press, Cambridge, Mass. Terms: one dollar and a half per year, twenty cents per copy.
Entered as second-class matter January 12, 1907, at the Post-Office at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress,
July 16, 1894.
Subscriptions should be addressed to the AMericAN Museum Journal, 77th St. and
‘Central Park West, New York City.
The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum.
99¢
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THE PROPOSED TYRANNOSAURUS GROUP FOR THE AMERICAN MUSEUM, AS SHOWN IN
A REDUCED MODEL BY MR. ERWIN CHRISTMAN
270
THe AMERICAN Museum JOuRNAL
VOLUME XV
OCTOBER, 1915
NUMBER 6
TYRANNOSAURUS, THE LARGEST FLESH-EATING
ANIMAL THAT EVER LIVED
By Barnum Brown
AWN glows along the shore of a
|) lagoon near the sea three mil-
lions of years ago in Montana.
The landscape is of low relief; sycamores
and ginkgo trees mingle with figs, palms
and bananas. There are few twittering
birds in the tree-tops and no herds of
grazing animals to greet the early sun.
A huge herbivorous dinosaur Tracho-
don, coming on shore for some favorite
food has been seized and partly eaten
by a giant Tyrannosaurus. Whilst this
monster is ravenously consuming the
carcass another Tyrannosaurus draws
near determined to dispute the prey.
The stooping animal hesitates, partly
rises and prepares to spring on its oppo-
nent. With colossal bodies poised on
massive hind legs and steadied by long
tails, ponderous heads armed with sharp
dagger-like teeth three to five inches
long, front limbs exceedingly smali but
set for a powerful clutch, they are the
very embodiment of dynamic animal
force.
This is the picture conjured by a group
of three fossil skeletons in the American
Museum which completed will occupy a
space fifty-four feet long and twelve
feet wide. The erect Tyrannosaurus
skeleton now finished measures forty-
seven feet in length from tip to tip and
eighteen and one-half feet in height.
Larger herbivorous dinosaurs have been
found in the United States and in Africa
in rocks of an earlier age but their
carnivorous contemporaries were at least
a third smaller than Tyrannosaurus
which we can safely state is the largest
terrestrial flesh-eater of all ages.
A complete skeleton has never been
found; even scattered remains are rare;
but the Museum’s skeletons fortunately
supplement each other in such a way
that bones missing in the one have been
cast from the other. Only the tip of the
tail and the lower part of the front
limbs have been modeled from an allied
form.
The discovery of these rare fossils
is of peculiar interest. While hunting
deer along the Missouri River some years
ago, Dr. W. T. Hornaday, director of
the New York Zodlogical Park, dis-
covered several large fossil bones. One
of these shown to me, I identified as part
of a horn of a dinosaur Triceratops; and
photographs which Dr. Hornaday had
taken of the scene of discovery showed a
striking similarity to localities in Wyo-
ming where many Cretaceous fossils have
been found.
The following year, 1902, an expedi-
tion was sent to the new locality. Our
outfitting point and base of supplies was
Miles City, Montana, a point on the
railroad one hundred and thirty miles
from the “bad lands.” After five long
days across measureless undulating
prairie, past numerous flocks of sheep
271
THE GIANT CARNIVOROUS DINOSAUR TYRANNOSAURUS
"The skeleton is forty-seven feet in length, and stands nineteen feet in height from the floor. The
gigantic head, sharp teeth and claws all show the carnivorous adaptations and habits of the animal
It can safely be said that Tyrannosaurus, which lived three millions of years ago, is the largest
terrestrial flesh-eater of all ages. The skeleton is intended to form part of a group representing two
‘Tyrannosaurs quarreling over the carcass of a Trachodon or duckbilled dinosaur. When the new west
wing is built the Tyrannosaur group will be the central exhibit of the Cretaceous dinosaur hall. Owing
to lack of space, only one skeleton can be mounted at present and this has to be placed temporarily in
the Quaternary hall on the fourth floor
272
THE LARGEST FLESH-EATING DINOSAUR
and fewer herds of cattle, we arrived at
the little log post-office Jordan.
A few miles beyond this point at the
head of the small streams tributary to
the Missouri River, the prairie abruptly
changes to a panorama of wonderful
bad lands; a wilderness of variegated
sculptured cliffs and domes intersected
by deep cafions with scattered pine trees
and pockets of junipers; while on the
hillsides in the broader valleys, lines of
cottonwoods mark the stream courses.
The dullness of the denuded earth is
relieved by bright-colored clay in bands
traceable on the same level for miles.
Hard globular sandstones of all sizes are
scattered among the layers of sand, and
groups of them cluster the slopes of the
hills.
We established camp on Hell Creek
near the old Max Sieber ranch, where
the first bones had been discovered.
Nearby, the stream has cut into a hill
exposing rounded sandstones, many of
273
which have rolled down to the water.
Some of the stones contained bones and
we traced them up the hillside by broken
pieces until the original position of the
layer was located. Here in the buff-
colored sand half way up the hill we
found the first skeleton of Tyranno-
saurus lying in the position in which it
had been interred and petrified millions
of years ago.
The skeleton was disarticulated and
scattered on the same level and almost
every bone was separately enclosed in a
bluish sandstone as hard as granite.
The loose surface sand was easily re-
moved but below the frost line the hard
cemented mass was almost unyielding
to a pick. The area over which the
bones were scattered and the almost
vertical slope of the hill necessitated
removal of a vast amount of material.
With additional help, plows, scrapers
and dynamite we attacked the task,
carving off slices of the hillside down to
SKELETON RECENTLY MOUNTED IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM
The successive expeditions under Mr. Barnum Brown in the Cretaceous of Montana and Alberta
have secured for the Museum a large series of dinosaur skeletons representing all the principal types of
this period. The Tyrannosaurus mount is regarded as the finest piece of work in this line which has yet
been accomplished. The articulation and pose are the result of prolonged and thorough studies and
criticism, and the mechanical problems have been solved and managed with great skill and a clear
appreciation of the artistic and scientific concept which was to be executed.
The mounting was done
by Mr. Charles Lang under the direction of Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn and the scientific staff of
the department of vertebrate paleontology
274 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
the bone layer, where the bones were
taken up one by one. Part of a second
summer was required to complete taking
out this skeleton and the work when
finished left an excavation in the hill
thirty feet long, twenty feet wide and
twenty-five feet deep. Some of the
sandstone blocks containing the bones
shipped back to the Museum were of
huge size; one containing the pelvis
weighed 4150 pounds and required four
horses to transport it to the railroad.
A second skeleton, the one just
mounted, was found six years later in
the same Montana bad lands on Big
Dry Creek. This is considerably more
complete than the first one.
Tyrannosaurus is a giant reptile dis-
tantly related to lizards, crocodiles and
birds. Its hind legs are formed like
those of birds and the bones are pneu-
matic. It was a powerful creature,
doubtless swift of movement when
occasion demanded speed, and capable
of destroying any of the contemporary
creatures, a king of the period and
monarch of its race.
The rear view of the skeleton shows
the narrow birdlike construction of the
pelvis, and compact rib-basket, the
massive proportions of the great hind
limbs, which bend forward at the knee
as in birds, instead of outward as in
crocodiles and lizards. The tail is
enlarged out of its due proportion by the
perspective, but its sweeping curves are
clearly brought out, as well as the slighter
curves of backbone and neck, all care-
fully studied for the pose adopted. The
sudden pause in its forward rush on
coming close to its crouching enemy is
well suggested, but the
attitude could be more
clearly seen if the out-
lines of the flesh of the
body and limbs were
restored.
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TYRANNOSAURUS QUARRY. HELL CREEK, MONTANA
Excavating with team and scraper, to remove a Tyrannosaurus skeleton lying in the position in
which it had been interred and petrified millions of years ago
276
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following page]
BIRDS OF THE CONGO
By James P. Chapin
Illustrations from photographs by Herbert Lang
HE Congo offers wonderful op-
portunity to the naturalist, and
surely it will be difficult for one
who from childhood has been a bird-
lover to express the fascination of bird
study in central Africa —to tell the
charm of knowing the birds of a Congo
forest almost as he knew those of the
woods of his boyhood, recognizing them
by their voices, finding their nests,
investigating their ways of life, their
food and enemies; and finally of culti-
vating this acquaintance for more than
five years.!
In a country like tropical Africa, of
course all serious study must be inti-
mately correlated with collecting, for
exact knowledge is otherwise impossible.
The preparation and care of specimens,
although apt to be more tedious in such
a damp hot climate, are in_ principle
much the same as at home; but it is the
experiences in collecting, and the infor-
mation one cannot fail to gather in the
course of such work that prove of the
highest value. Much of our success I
believe was due to the endeavor to
1 For this unique opportunity I am indebted to
the American Museum of Natural History, in
whose Congo Expedition I have had the privilege
to take part as scientific assistant to Mr. Herbert
Lang, and I feel it my duty here to express my
sincere admiration of Mr. Lang’s efficient direc-
tion of the work and my heartfelt appreciation
of his invaluable advice and encouragement
throughout our long stay.
kt Footnote: — Most important among the char-
acteristic birds of this equatorial forest are the
crowned eagle (Spizaétus), the black guinea fowl
(Phasidus), wood rails (Himantornis and Cani-
rallus), plaintain eaters (Corytheola; Turacus),
‘gray parrots and hornbills, but in addition there
are {many smaller eagles and hawks, crested
guinea fowls (Guttera), forest doves (Calopelia),
fruit pigeons (Vinago), cuckoos, horned and
wood owls, beautiful trogons, spine-tailed swifts,
barbets, woodpeckers, starlings, black-headed
orioles, bulbuls, thrushes and weaver birds.
profit by this knowledge as well as to
rely whenever possible on the assistance
of natives.
Negro ornithology is interesting, al-
though often far from exact. Names
for birds are usually generic, as might be
expected. Sometimes one term in-
cludes all the members of a family, al-
though a common and_ conspicuous
species, like the great blue plantain
eater or the fish-eagle, has a name of its
own. ‘These have originated
frequently in the calls of the birds, as
nakurubu (pigeon), nambulukuku (dove),
magiligilt (lapwing) and bukw (wood-
owl). Among the Medje, a_ green-
backed cuckoo’s plaintive whistled note
names
is very well imitated in its name, papun-
zisodu [literally, “Father is dead, so
there!’’]. Others are named from their
habits, as the tick-bird that clings to
the bodies of buffalos and rhinos is
known to the Azande as zeregbe, or
buffalo-bird.
The birds of Africa are generally
conceded to be inferior in song to those
of Europe, yet there are some worthy of
high praise. Best are the thrushes,
three of which (of the genus Cossypha)
are also expert mimics, often mocking
eagles, hawks, fruit-pigeons and cuckoos
from hiding places in dense second-
growth. One of their small relatives,
an extremely wary denizen of the virgin
forest, has a song so sweet that my native
helper christened it the “king of music.”
On the granite hills of the Sudan border
and fond of the most inaccessible rocks
there, is another first-rate songster
(Thamnolea) of the thrush family.
The orioles of course have mellow
whistles, as do also a few of the numerous
281
282
THE AMERICAN
Native climber at a hornbill’s nest thirty-
five feet from the ground. He has made the as-
cent by means of two stiff ropelike loops encir-
cling the tree, one supporting his right thigh, the
other the left foot
Head of hornbill (Ortholophus cassiniz), owner
of nest shown above
MUSEUM JOURNAL
Even the emerald
cuckoo utters pleasant whistled notes.
This bird is known among Europeans
as the most beautiful of Congo birds,
although a lover of tall trees, where the
jewel-like green of its back and head ean
hardly be admired. On the other hand,
none of the larks we met with had any-
and varied shrikes.
thing worthy to be called music, indeed
one of them simply beats its wings
loudly at intervals (whence its name
‘clapper-lark’’) while making long flights
high in the air.
Congo birds are not lacking in bril-
The flower-
loving sunbirds, somewhat larger than
liant and striking plumage.
hummers, have gorgeous metallic purple,
violet and green hues, often with red
and yellow beneath, and sometimes with
Paradise
flycatchers have the two middle feathers
two long feathers in the tail.
of the tail much elongated, and white.
Kingfishers, with their glossy blues and
greens range in size from one of the
largest species in the world down to
little red-billed fellows no bigger than
warblers, feeding
on insects, but dig-
ging their burrows
in the characteris-
tic way. Several of
the plantain-eat-
ers, large, dark
green and_ violet,
surprise one when
they take flight
with extensive
crimson patches in
the wings. Among
the many other
brightly — colored
forms are the soft-
feathered trogons,
the graceful bee-
eaters and rollers,
glossy 4 ‘starlings,
golden 7} F orioles,
VIEW IN THE CONGO FOREST
Here tree ferns grow and there is no danger of forest fires, for everything is saturated with moisture.
The woodpeckers of this region are all rather small, in spite of the great trees and abundant insect life.
Not a few feed principally on ants. One of the smallest, known as a ‘‘piculet’’ has soft tail-feathers
and is only three inches long. Some of the weaver birds are insectivorous and two species climb
about the bark of trees like nuthatches 7
In these forests it is a common thing for the smaller insectivorous birds of many different species
to gather in parties, all moving in the same direction as they search for food. Some of the
‘‘babblers’’ (family Timeliidae) and true thrushes recall the ‘‘ant-thrushes’’ of South America by
their dull colors and terrestrial habits. A few of them are in fact attracted by the moving columns of
driver ants 283
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MAKERE NATIVE WITH GREAT-CROWNED EAGLE
286
BIRDS OF THE CONGO
azure cuckoo-
shrikes and flaming
bishop-birds.
The Congo fur-
nishes some exam-
ples of birds of
most remarkable
instincts. The
honey guide fully
merits its fame for
attracting men
with its chattering
ery and leading
them to beehives
in order that it
may share in the
spoils. A bird of
the more open grass
country, it greets
you with an insist-
ent “cutta-cutta-
cutta-cutta!’’, flies
off ahead, and if
you have time to
follow it, will take
you to the hive it
knows of, although
you will then have to watch and listen
yourself for the bees, while your inform-
ant sits quietly watching in some nearby
tree. Honey guides eat a good deal of
beeswax; in preparing the specimens we
usually found some in their stomachs,
even in those of some of the smaller re-
lated species that do not call upon man
for assistance.
The nesting habits of hornbills, of
which we secured no fewer than ten
different species, are especially curious.
‘The eggs are laid in a hole in a tree,
where the female is confined until her
young are fully ready to leave, perhaps
some six weeks. The entrance is par-
tially closed with muddy material, and
food is brought to her regularly by her
mate; in fact the nests were discovered
by watching his movements. Natives
287
The pennant-winged nightjar (Macrodipteryx vexillarius) hunts at
night in the open grass country.
termites are leaving their nests at dusk
It assembles in flocks when the winged
stated that the female sheds all her quills
from both wings and tail, during this
period, and we found that in some cases
at least this was true.
The collector in the Congo has often
great difficulty in approaching birds,
especially in the great trees of the Ituri
forest, where a bird on the upper branches
may be one hundred and twenty. feet
above anyone standing beneath the
tree. Yet certain species were seldom
seen elsewhere, just as certain others
skulked continually im dense under-
brush. Since my return I have been
struck by the comparative tameness of
many American birds, and have won-
dered to what to ascribe it. Can it
be that the abundance of mankind,
instead of making them wary, actually
causes them to become indifferent, or
A living ‘‘scarecrow’’ watching over a field of ripening grain (sorghum) to scare away the weaver
birds. He shouts and throws pebbles or shoots little reeds from his bow, while women and children
walk about among the grain to help protect the harvest
Coly, also called “‘mouse bird”’ from its habit of creeping about among the branches. The tail-
feathers are molted so gradually, and are. so often broken that an individual with a complete tail is.
rare. The foot is peculiar in that all four toes can be turned forward at once
288
BIRDS OF THE CONGO
are the fears of African birds kept
sharpened by their other more numerous
enemies, rapacious mammals, birds and
reptiles? Many small Congo birds take
wing at thirty yards or more; although
in strong contrast to this, one bird, the
common black-and-white wagtail is so
confiding that it nests in the thatched
roofs, and walks about on the verandas,
coming up to within six feet sometimes
if one sits very quiet.
289
Others are not only shy but also very
clever at hiding away in dense vegeta-
tion, their voices alone betraying them.
I remember particularly some small
brown warblers (Bradypterus) in the
papyrus, whose prolonged chirping notes
and loud wing-beats induced me_ to
spend hours and hours breaking path-
ways into the swamps, often knee-deep
or more in mud and water, and then
waiting motionless, until at last, after
Wild date palms in a papyrus swamp, bearing large numbers of nests of a large yellow-and-
black weaver bird (Hyphantornis cucullatus).
Many weavers are fond of nesting on boughs over-
hanging rivers, also on thorny trees or vines, and a few species build in the tree where an eagle,
buzzard or marabou is nesting, also evidently for protection
290
days of such work, I was able to see and
collect a few of them.
Still others, such as swifts, some birds
of prey, hemipodes, quail, partridges,
and snipe had to be shot on the wing.
At this I was at that time far from
expert, but even my moderate success
failed
never to surprise native wit-
at
Hadadah ibis, typical of forested river-banks
nesses. They would grin, and then cover
their mouths with the hand, later to
deliver speeches on the strong arm or
sharp eye of the white man. They
themselves never think of shooting an
arrow at a flying bird, and the few of
them who possess old muzzle-loading
guns would not risk powder or caps on
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
such a hazard, so they have little idea
how it is done.
Among the water birds the elusive fin-
foot or sun-grebe (Podica) caused me a
good deal of trouble. Traveling along
the Ituri River in native dugouts we
would occasionally come upon them,
usually singly, swimming close to the
shore. One_ bird
to four days’ jour-
ney was about the
average frequency.
The long stiff tail
lies on the water
and the back is so
nearly immersed
that little can be
seen except the
head and the neck.
On sighting us, the
finfoot wouldeither
make straight for
shore or fly ahead
some distance,
dropping into the
water, to swim
ashore and hide in
the bushes. From
this concealment it
was sometimes im-
possible even for
several boatmen
working together
to drive it out
again, although
with luck it would
return tothe water,
scuttling off with a
noisy patter of feet
Balancing oneself upright
on the bow of a small canoe in such
pursuits as these is often a ticklish per-
formance.
Nightjars, owls, and other nocturnal
birds with their mysterious habits tempt
one to evening strolls. Two species of
the nightjars (Macrodipteryx) have a
like a coot.
BIRDS OF THE CONGO
very long feather in the wing, and in
one of these species the feather has a
bare shaft and racquet-like tip, so that
in flight at dusk the bird looks as though
pursued by two smaller ones, hovering
continually a little above and behind.
In the posts of the Uele, on moonlight
nights in the dry season the large-eyed
stone curlews (Gdicnemus) walk about on
the ground uttering at intervals a series
of shrill whistles.
These calls puzzled
us at first, for the
streaked brown
plumage of the
birds made them
difficult to see, and
they spent the day
in quiet spots along
the rivers, coming
to the stations to
feed only at night.
Weused towatchat
twilight for a choc-
olate-black hawk
( Macherhamphus )
that seldom flies
by daylight, but
subsists largely on
small bats, flying
rapidly about in
the growing dark-
ness, swift as a fal-
con. This peculiar
hawk although rare
in collections, ranges widely over Africa,
and we observed it all across the Belgian
Congo.
The natives often secured good speci-
mens, sometimes with their arrows, and
brought them to us, to secure in ex-
change some coveted gilt tacks, tablets
of salt, or other small objects they con-
sidered valuable. They procured us
even the great crowned eagle (Spizaétus
coronatus), a forest species preying on
monkeys. This bird makes an enor-
291
mous nest—under one of which I once
spent the better part of three days wait-
ing for the bird, pestered by tiny ticks
and honeybees. Some of the natives
used birdlime made by boiling a rubber-
like sap together with palm oil, a method
however which we always discouraged.
But it was by trapping that they
There were
many birds in the forest, living on and
aided us most effectively.
Immature specimen of crown eagle (Spizaétus coronatus)
near the ground that were exceedingly
difficult to see, and some of these we
were hardly able to get save through this
codperation. The Medje and Mangbetu
tribes make a very good trap. A young
tree is trimmed and its stem bent over
to serve as a spring; attached to this is
a slipknot, which is jerked taut when
anything touches a horizontal stick in
the middle of the noose. These traps
are set in the game paths in the forest or
in cultivated fields, and baited with
292
termites, sometimes broken pieces of
the hard clay nests containing these in-
sects but preferably with the large, fat,
winged termites themselves so beloved
by birds. Such a trap is very effective,
catching francolins, guinea fowl, large
wood-rails, pigeons, and a great variety
of smaller birds. Ants of course, were
unfortunately so numerous and indus-
trious that specimens left too long in
the traps were sure to be mutilated — and
many a time too, I have had to berate
well-meaning men who brought us the
birds but kept all the quills which they
had pulled out from wings and tail to
decorate their hats.
Sometimes simple loops of thin cord
would suffice to snare birds, especially
near their nests. The Logo trapped the
large bustard by constructing a rude
fence in places where the grass had been
freshly burned, with openings at inter-
vals where loops of cord awaited the
neck of a victim. I have seen men of
the same tribe capture waxbills in rude
cages built on the ground, with a little
grain as bait.
The most curious way of catching
birds however, that I ever witnessed was
at a small cave, large enough to hold two
or three men, in a steep bank of a wooded
ravine. Here a man would sit inside,
having fastened a piece of calico like a
curtain above the small entrance, and
wait for the colies, or mouse-birds, which
came in numbers to eat the earth in this
When a number of birds had
entered he would suddenly pull down the
cloth, cutting off their escape, and catch
them in his hands. I have known thirty
to be caught in this way within a few
hours.
Some small red-headed rails that we
found very difficult to flush, we could
often catch in the hand —as the Ma-
budu taught us— after we had sur-
recess.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
rounded them by a circle of a dozen or
more natives or even children. In the
same fashion we once caught a crake,
almost as large as a clapper-rail.
I knew a man of the Ababua tribe,
who was able to call forest guinea-fowl
(Guttera), and have seen him bring up a
whole flock to within a few paces by
imitating their nasal calls. He was a cor-
poral in the native police force and a
very useful man to his European officer,
for besides these guinea-fowl he could eall
also the small antelopes of the forest —
with a loud sound like “n-n-n-y-au!”
made with fingers pressed to the nose —
providing the means of many a welcome
change in the menu.
With regard to the migration of birds,
we enjoyed unusual opportunities for
observations extending over several
years. Not only are there many that
come from Europe to spend their win-
ter in central Africa —for example, the
nightingale, swallows, warblers, falcons,
storks, snipe and other water birds, but
also a number of African forms that do
migrate to a certain extent, including
certain of the lapwings, storks, bustards,
hawks, kites, nightjars and weavers.
The bird collection made by the expedi-
tion is remarkably rich, not only in the
number of specimens, but particularly
with regard to the variety of different
species, which number close to six
hundred, many of them as yet very rare
in museums, and some still unknown.
Our long stay in the Congo, with its
trying climate, would have been im-
possible without the many privileges
and favors bestowed upon us by the
Belgian Government, whose amiable
representatives always welcomed us in
the most cordial manner and assisted us
in every way, contributing very much
to the success of our work and winning
our deepest admiration and gratitude.
REPRODUCTIONS OF AFRICAN PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE
WORK OF HERBERT LANG AND CARL E. AKELEY
THE WHIRLING DANCE OF THE ABARAMBO
This dance is performed only by men. Note the man at the right jumping high in air.
Near Poko, in the Uele District of the Belgian Congo
Photo by Herbert Lang
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Photo by Herbert Lang
CARVED IVORY HORN FOR CEREMONIAL AND DANCE
The head of the human figure at the end of the horn shows the characteristic female headdress of the
Mangbetu ( Uele District, Belgian Congo). This particular specimen is in the collection
which Messrs. Lang and Chapin brought back to the American Museum
from their six years’ work in the Congo
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Photo by Herbert Lang
BAFUKA, AN AVUNGURA-AZANDE CHIEF
At the head of his Azande warriors (Uele District, Belgian Congo), he helped Commandant Chaltin drive
the Dervishes out of the Congo in 1897. His shield is of rattan; his garment is of bark cloth. Spear
and shield are going out of use in the Congo both for war and the hunt because of the im-
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THE TRAIL OF WAR IN MACEDONIA
By David Starr Jordan
Notr.— The following interesting and significant statement is quoted from Dr. Jordan’s
letter to the Editor, who had suggested at some time previous that an article on the effect
of the war on science would be interesting to readers of the JourNAL: “....I am sorry my
sketch does not more nearly meet your needs. However there are certainly elements of
science in a study of the unscientific ways of the men of the Balkans....The effect of the
war on scientific endeavor in Europe can be stated in few words. It has been to blast
it — excepting only in the lines in which science has been prostituted to murder, and
in the lines in which men try to save life, even if only to destroy it when saved. Half the
young scientific men are in the ranks and many have been killed or wounded. A few scientific
papers are printed, mostly written before the war, but science cannot thrive in an atmosphere
of lawless hate.
center of gravity in scientific work will have shifted to America.
T was my fortune, not long ago, with
three good friends ! and two soldiers,
to follow in a King’s automobile
along the trail of war. This was in
Macedonia. The line of an army’s
march is not pleasant to look upon even
though the people along it had not much
tolose. The pinch
of suffering is very
real even if, as in
the Balkans, folks |
have grown used to. |.
it. There are two
plain marks’ by
which you
recognize the path
of war in a land of
farmers. The one
is the charred vil-
lage, with its white-
washed stone walls
blackened by fire.
The other is the
presence here and
there in the
ploughed field of
three poles fas-
tened together at the top, and from the
crotch a baby suspended just high enough
to baffle inquisitive dogs or goats.
where in the field, anywhere in the Balkan
may
Some-
valleys in May, you will see one woman
1Dr. John Mez, R. H. Markham and Emil F.
Hollmann.
Photo by Antonio Reinwein
Characteristic scene on the hills above Rjeka
near Cettinje, Montenegro
The end of the war will come — before long, I hope and believe — but the
Europe will be supine.”
driving or leading a bullock or a buffalo,
while another behind her holds the
plough. The men are in the army — or
else they were there.
The memory I shall longest hold of
Montenegro is a picture taken by my
guide, Antonio Reinwein, of this land
of stony graves, of
the resolute people
of the limestone
crags who have
never done homage
to the Turks nor to
other outside
any
power.
It will be remem-
bered that all these
Balkan folk were
for years under the
dominion of the
Turk, that
none of them have
been free for half
a century. The
Turk was most ac-
and
ceptable when he
was asleep. When
he was awake, he had his own ideas of
“Union and Progress.’”’ Union meant
uniformity. A nation should have one
ruler, one flag, one religion, one language.
Progress was his way of bringing about
this condition. This was by massacre.
And as the actual Turks were few in
293
294
number, ruling over an empire of Slavs,
Greeks, Italians, Jews, Armenians, AI-
banians, Kurds, Egyptians, Moors and
Arabs, it demanded eternal vigilance to
keep them all in a state of union and
progress.
These people have had constantly be-
fore them the choice of revolt, conversion,
assimilation, banishment and massacre.
And at one time or another, some of each
race have chosen each one of these, often
two or three of them at once. Mean-
while, following the wicked lead of Bis-
marck and Disraeli, Europe has kept the
Turk alive, because from financiers in
each nation, the Ottoman Sultan has
borrowed considerable sums of money.
If the “Sick Man of Europe” should
die, his debts might be left unpaid;
worse than that, they might be unse-
cured. And so the Balkans were kept
in confusion and the rest of the Otto-
man Empire as well, in the hands of
wild soldiers. Besides there were still
wilder hordes of local andartes, comitijt,
ruffians, camp-followers, or bashi-
bazouks, always ready for murder and
plunder. Whenever a period of peace
and tolerance set in, as was sometimes
the case, it was due to sheer inanition
on the part of the Turk and as such it
was followed by a fierce relapse.
one the Balkan different
fashion escaped from Turkish rule.
First Greece and Serbia, Rumania and
Bulgaria; then Rumelia, to become part
of Bulgaria; Bosnia and Herzegovina
to be absorbed by Austria, and in the
war of 1912, Macedonia with Thessaly
and Thrace, to be unequally divided
their and finally
Albania to be segregated as an impos-
sible kingdom under an impossible king.
Macedonia lies along the southern
slopes of the Balkan Peninsula. It is a
fertile region crossed by chains of
One by
states, in
among neighbors,
rounded mountains, with green valleys
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
and swift streams, in physical conditions
not unlike the south of France. It has
45,000 square miles of territory, is
about as large as the state of Maine,
with a population nearly two-thirds
that of the city of New York, and
before the war of liberation it had
about 2,250,000 people. The majority
of these were Bulgarian in blood and
they were allowed to have their own
churches and schools. Some _ called
Pomaks had adopted the Moslem re-
ligion, others were Greeks in language
as well as in religion. These were in the
west (Castoria) adjoining the land called
Thessaly. But Greek or Bulgarian,
they were nearly all of the same blood
originally, for the modern Greek is not
the son of the incomparable Hellenes,
but is described as a “Byzantinized
Slav.” The suicidal wars of Athens
and Sparta, with the greater and lesser
struggles which history describes, ex-
terminated the choice blood of Hellas
and when the Greeks were gone, with
them went “the glory that was Greece.”
Turks, Jews, Armenians, Rumanians
(Valaques) and gypsies made up the
population of Macedonia. The Jews
in Saloniki were refugees from Spain,
still speaking a dialect of Castilian. In
the face of “democratic famine working
day and night,” fully half of these have
now found their way to New York.
As to the campaigns which have
desolated Macedonia in the last few
years we need say only a word. The
history of the two Balkan wars is given
with accuracy and justice in the monu-
mental report of the Balkan Commis-
sion of the Carnegie Endowment, a
document of especial value in any study
of the conditions preceding the “third
Balkan war” which to-day has set the
world in flames.
The first Balkan war was altruistic as
far as any war can be. Its purpose was
THE TRAIL OF WAR IN MACEDONIA 295
the relief of a distressed people, suffering
for centuries from the laxities of Turkish
rule, always incompetent and every-
where unscrupulous, and on the other
hand continuously overrun by the out-
law patriots which kept the land in
incessant turmoil.
The Balkan alliance was a Russian
inspiration. It was planned by Hart-
wig, Russian minister at Belgrade, “the
A burned Macedonian village
Greek refugees at Saloniki (from Thrace)
296 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Evil Genius of the Balkans.”” It ended on the kingdom of Albania, leaving the
in the Treaty of London, where the _ states to fight it out so far as Macedonia
blind intermeddling of the Powers, was concerned. This brought on the
baffled by Austrian intrigue, agreed only second Balkan war, in which Bulgarian
Greek refugee camp at station of Demir-Hissar in Macedonia
Levenovo, in Macedonia, a burned village partly restored
THE TRAIL OF WAR IN MACEDONIA 297
diplomacy made all the mistakes it had a
chance to make. For these she was
duly punished by the brigand Treaty of
Bucharest, in which Rumania _ forced
into her own hands the fertile meadows
of the Dobrudja, while the best of Mace-
donia was divided between Serbia and
Greece.
If the Powers had not been a group
of wrangling agents sparring for ad-
vantage, they would have considered
the interests of Macedonia first. They
would have made it an autonomous
province held in trust for the welfare
of its people and above all, with entire
tolerance of religion, language and race.
But no such tolerance yet exists in
Europe outside of its westernmost na-
tions.
The Treaty of Bucharest left Mace-
donia crossed by artificial boundaries.
The effect of intolerance, worst in Greece,
bad enough everywhere, was to drive
out of each nation all who belonged to
the wrong language or religion. I do
not say race, for they are all of the same
general stock, even the bulk of the
“Turks” and Greeks. This has filled
the region with refugees, men and
women whose fault is that they lived
on the wrong side of boundaries made
for them in the Treaty of Bucharest.
Passing down the long highway which
leads over two hundred miles from Sofia
to Samokov and Dubnitza in old Bul-
garia, then across the border of Mace-
donia, down the Struma River past
Dzumaia to Petritch, we found every-
where the Bulgarian refugees from the
Saloniki district in Greek Macedonia.
These have been roughly estimated at
50,000 in number. Some of these have
been given farms or houses abandoned
in Macedonia by Turks who followed
the Turkish“army away. Others re-
ceived farms left by Greeks when the
Greek army went back after the treaty
el
of Bucharest. The government grants
each person some fourpence a day.
Some find work, but after the war there
are few employers. The cost of living
has doubled, the means of living has
fallen. At Petritch, near the present
boundary of Greece, there were hundreds
of these waiting about on the stone side-
walks day by day. They were waiting
for the Powers to revise the Treaty of
Bucharest and give them back their
homes in the region above Saloniki.
Some local journal had said that this
revision was coming soon. It was my
duty to assure them that it would never
come. The phrase in Sofia, “Europe
* is the truth so far as
Balkan affairs are concerned.
exists no more,’
The reason for that is clearer now.
Europe was paralyzed by the great
terror which has since come on it in an
unthinkable catastrophe. There were
some in the “Concert of the Powers,”
who were striving to bring on this
catastrophe. The “war of steel and
gold” was about to give place to real
war, which would end, they hoped, in
speedy victory and world power. It
has not ended in that way. It has not
yet ended at all. But those who most
looked forward to war were the ones
who had least conception of its certain
consequences.
The condition of the Bulgarian refu-
gees has been especially hard because
their flight took place mostly in the fall
and winter and before the cholera was
stamped out. Very many died on the
road, and many more died after reaching
the inhospitable Bulgarian towns, where
they received scanty welcome because
the people were overborne by their own
troubles.
The Rumanian invasion caused also
great hardship in Bulgaria. The annex-
ation of Silistria and the Dobrudja, with
its population of about 180,000, was
by
*
Ma
a aces,
Greek army stationed on Bizbutza River boundary between Bulgaria and Greek Macedonia.
Third from the left, General Evangelos Tsanas; fifth, Themistocles Papajeaines; seventh, beside
Dr. Jordan, John Pappamelins
THE TRAIL OF WAR IN MACEDONIA
followed by the exodus of all those
unwilling to be summarily Rumanised
in language and in religion. These
refugees swarm in Varna and Plevna,
while it is said that at Burgas, near the
Turkish frontier, there are now 48,000
more forced out of Turkish Thrace since
the recapture of Adrianople by the
Turks with the wiping out of the Enos-
Midia boundary line so carefully drawn
by the Concert of Powers.
In the whole length of the Struma
Valley in western Macedonia, towns
have been burned in whole or part by
the Greek army which pursued the
Bulgarians as far as the old border of
Bulgaria. In Greek Macedonia, at the
hands of some one or all of the three
successive armies — Turkish, Bulgarian
and Greek — most of the towns between
Saloniki and Drama have suffered the
same fate. Each of these towns has
now its share of Greek refugees from
Turkish Thrace. These have been esti-
mated by Greek authorities as numbering
300,000. They have come by railway
from Adrianople in box cars belonging
to the Greek Government. These cars
are left at the various stations, a dozen
or more at each. In these the people
keep their bedding and their scanty
effects. The government of Greece
allows them two or three sous a day,
with rice which they cook on fires of
thistles and other weeds. I was told
by one of these at Demir-Hissar that
their homes about Adrianople and Kirk
Kilisseh, were wanted for Albanian refu-
gees from the Novibazar (now annexed
to Serbia), and that they were given by
the Albanians from two hours to four
days to get out of Thrace. He summed
up the conditions in the Italian word
duro (hard). I was told also that a
Turkish town near Nigrita (or possibly
Nigrita itself) had been turned over
bodily to Greek refugees, and that the
299
rest of these would in time be placed on
farms abandoned by Turks and Bul-
garians. Other Greeks, not refugees,
were coming from Russian ports, at-
tracted by the prospect of free land in
Macedonia.
In a Turkish journal, vigorous com-
plaint was made against the Albanian
refugees in Thrace as more “proficient
with the Mauser than with the plow,
and skillful only as cattle thieves.” A
plea was made for bringing back the
Bulgarian farmers as far more desirable
neighbors. “The Bulgarians are now
our friends.”
In the larger towns, as Saloniki and
Kilkush, the refugees are ranged in tent
cities, ten thousand or more in one en-
campment. There were perhaps sixty
thousand Greek refugees a little more
than a year ago along the road from
Drama to Saloniki.
A little more than a year ago, when I
was at Saloniki, the Turks were leaving
in great numbers: 212,000 took steerage
passage for Stamboul in April. Saloniki,
(Thessalonike) beautifully situated, in
full face of Mount Olympus and with a
noble harbor should be one of the great
cities of the world. In the aftermath
of the second Balkan war it lost half its
population. It is no better off to-day
than in the times when St. Paul called
out for help in Macedonia. A year ago,
there were still many Turks in Saloniki,
teamsters, laborers, idlers about the
wharves, gentlemen smoking in the
cafés. Even in Bulgarian towns, as
Dzumaia, one may see the red fez, but
its wearers seem to have nothing to do
save to lie about in unoccupied lots or to
sit upon the steps of burned buildings.
In Serbian Macedonia, the Bulgarian
is turned by force into a Serbian. If he
resists, he risks his life. His name is
changed, as from Popoff to Popovitch,
from Stephanoff to Stephanovitch. His
300
religion, Greek in either case, transfers
its allegiance from the heretic exarch in
Sofia, to the orthodox patriarch in
Athens. The theory is that Bulgarians
in Macedonia are really Serbians per-
verted by their environment.
These harsh and often terribly brutal
operations in Serbia and Greece result
from the unchecked operations of the
military element. The soldier, as such,
considers neither economic conditions
nor the soul of man. It was claimed
that the two wise ministers Pashitch
in Belgrade and Venizelos in Athens were
both opposed to the policy of repression.
Both would, if they could, have pro-
claimed religious linguistic tolerance in
those parts of Macedonia turned over to
them by the Treaty of Bucharest. But
the fact of victory, and especially victory
over their sister state, Bulgaria, intoxi-
cates the military, and fills the mob
with the “east wind.” In such times
the civil authority cannot hold its own
against the military.
Bulgaria, being on the defeated side,
recognizes better the value of tolerance.
A Greek church and school stand un-
disturbed in Sofia. In the Bulgarian
national assembly there are about a
dozen Turkish deputies, representing
Thrace. These Turks, supporters all
of the King, hold the balance of power
against the combined Democrats and
Socialists, the group opposed to all war.
The spirit of hate is still very strong
among the people of Bulgaria. They
hate Rumania, as the robber-state who
has done them the most harm. They
hate Greece and Serbia, but they cannot
fight them, and the broad-minded among
them recognize that when Bulgaria is
strong enough to fight, she will be able
to carry her points in some better way
than by war.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
In the crisis of the early part of
1915, the upper classes of Bulgaria were
strongly on the side of Germany. They
hate Russia, believing (perhaps on
insufficient evidence, for the Russian
government had given them fair warn-
ing) that Russia had betrayed and
abandoned them in the Treaty of
London.
The common people do not want any
more war, and they have a very high
respect for England. Bulgaria has
250,000 soldiers, but very little in the
way of arms. She is not sure what her
army would do if it were called together.
She does not care much for the rest of
the world, but her heart is fixed on
Macedonia and Dobrudja, for these were
mainly Bulgarian, before the Bulgarian
people were driven away. The public
in Bulgaria expects the nation to go
into the war somewhere. If it does so,
it will fight for the group that promises
the return of the lost provinces. De-
mands for war and for neutrality
fluctuate with each movement of the
Russian troops in the Carpathians.
Meanwhile, the old days have come back
to Macedonia. Outlaw bands of dis-
couraged farmers harass the Serbians
and the Greeks as formerly they har-
assed the Turks, from Monastir to
Kavala. And the farmer still goes out
furtively from his half-burned village
to gather in his crops as he can or he
dares.
There can never be settled quiet in
the near East, until the “Balkans be-
long to the Balkans,” until civil author-
ity everywhere dominates the military
and until customs unions and other
unions cause these people to realize
that one fate befalls them all and that
the welfare of each state is bound up in
that of its neighbor.
A pair of courting birds standing on a shoal overlooking the sea
THE PENGUINS OF SOUTH GEORGIA
“ JOHNNIES” AND ‘‘KINGS” ON A DESOLATE SUBANTARCTIC ISLAND !
By Robert Cushman Murphy
UITE unlike the Johnny Penguin
is its big neighbor, the king
penguin. This species was
once abundant at South
Georgia, but it is now obviously in dan-
ger of extinction, partly because of the
foraging raids of sealers and whalers,
partly from the ravages of traders in
penguin oil.
We discovered three king penguin
colonies, all in the neighborhood of
Johnny penguin rookeries, but all on
low ground. The largest of these was
situated south of the Bay of Isles among
a barren waste of morainic stones. A
great bank of unmelting névé bounded
the settlement on the west, while a
violent glacial torrent separated it from
the sloping edge of a glacier on the east.
In such a gulch, between walls of snow
and ice, swept by southerly gales that
1 Continued from the last issue of the Journat.
Illustrations from photographs by the Author.
descended through a rift in the moun-
tains, a band of about three hundred and
fifty king penguins made their home.
When we found the colony, on Decem-
ber 16, many of the kings were incubat-
ing eggs, while at the same time half a
dozen young of the previous year, fully
grown but with ragged patches of long
down still attached to their contour
feathers, were associating with free
adult birds. The sitters stretched up
to as great a height as possible at the
approach of their first human visitors
(at least during that season), and clung
tenaciously to their eggs. After the
members of our crew had gathered many
eggs and had placed them in one spot
on the ground, the robbed penguins
approached the pile and slyly appro-
priated eggs to replace the lost ones.
But not only did they attempt to take
one egg—the proper complement —
several tried to tuck two in the space
301
02 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
A king penguin tucking its egg into the so-called
‘“prood-pouch,’’ which is merely the space be-
{tween belly, feet and tail
A Johnny standing over its eggs and momen-
tarily spreading its brood-pouch, or_ incubating
surface
between belly, tail and feet. I was never
able to discover in either sex of the king
penguin anything resembling a “cavity,”
such as Weddell mentions.
Incubating king penguins can shift
about slowly, in spite of the eggs on
their insteps. They drag themselves
along rather painfully, maintaining their
hunched positions, and hitching their
feet with short steps so that the egg may
not roll out. They are fond of crowding
together closely — yet seemingly for no
better purpose than to facilitate quarrel-
ing! Day after day at the colony I was
a neutral witness of their noisy squabbles.
The sitters glare at each other, with
sinuous necks twisted and heads cocked
sidewise, and deal resounding whacks
with their flippers, or lunges with their
sharp bills, to all their neighbors. Often
whole groups will be engaged in an
indiscriminate skirmish with these ra-
piers and broadswords. The birds are
careful to maintain their equilibrium
while banging each other, but it is a
wonder nevertheless, that no harm
comes to the eggs. On February 5 I
photographed a typical battle. One
sitter was employing its bill to mutilate
the back of another’s neck. The latter
bird, grunting vehemently, was deliver-
ing backhand blows with one wing but
without turning to face its opponent.
Only the intrusion of weapons of other
pugnacious penguins succeeded in divert-
ing the attentions of these two from
each other. The affair ended in a
general mélée in which nine birds took
part, each for itself and against every
other. Such is the reach and flexibility
of the king’s extensible neck that each
sitter can very easily become the center
of a large circle of trouble.
It seems probable that the breeding
season of this species extends through
the major part of the southern summer,
with great individual variation in the
~~
nee
‘ SP
ras
&
IN THE WATERS OF
SOUTH GEORGIA
A Johnny penguin swim-
ming under water and roll-
ing his back above the
surface
A king penguin entering
the sea, and a king [the
third photograph| coming
ashore
The king penguins on the left are in sleek new plumage.
time of laying. I saw a few birds still
engaged in pairing about the end of
January. Courting couples stroll apart
from the main flocks, and seem fond of
standing side by side on high places
such as knolls overlooking the sea.
Caresses are then exchanged, the usual
form being for the birds to cross their
necks, swaying from side to side.
King penguins commonly deport
The central figure is completing its molt
themselves in an amusingly lofty manner
toward human beings, paying slight
attention to a man’s quiet intrusion into
their midst. If they are annoyed they
march away, slowly and with an air of
indifference, until they have been ac-
tually frightened by abuse when they
fall upon their breasts and scurry on all
fours. I have seen a fox terrier put a
whole band of kings to ignominious
At the right — a yearling king penguin with his coat of down at its maximum length
Main group — a yearling king molting into his first adult clothes, and a group of old birds in the
throes of the annual molt
304
THE PENGUINS OF SOUTH GEORGIA
flight. Sitting birds alone are stolid
and fearless, refusing to be stampeded
even after their eggs have been taken.
The voice of an adult king penguin is
a martial sound, a long-drawn bugle call,
highly musical and almost worthy of
being dubbed a tune. When delivering
the call the bird stretches grandly to its
full height, points its bill skyward, and
the long volley rings forth from an
expanded chest. At the close of the
effort the head is tilted forward with a
jerk and the bugler stands at attention —
a rigid, artificial pose always held for
several moments. The yearling pen-
guin’s call is a clear whistle of three
notes, as soft and sweet as the whistle
of an oscine bird.
The actions of “bachelor troops,”
that is birds of both sexes which are
neither molting nor incubating, furnish
continual entertainment to an observer.
Such bands frequently come out of the
sea during the warmer parts of the day
to sun themselves on the beaches. The
birds sleep either prone or upright; if
in the latter position, often with the bill
turned behind the wing where ages ago
the ancestors of penguins may have had
305
warm coverts.
scrupulously
They preen themselves
and even perform the
difficult stunt of balancing on one foot
while they scratch their heads with the
other. Their regimental characteristics,
such as standing at attention, marking
time, and marching in single file or in
doubles, are very striking.
As regards enemies, I judge that this
species is little troubled by the skua gull,
the scourge of the Johnny penguin
rookeries. Its enemy in the ocean is the
sea-leopard. From the stomach of one
of these seals killed at the Bay of Isles,
I took the remains of four king penguins,
besides fish and other material. The
magnitude of this breakfast may be
more fully appreciated if I record that
the weight of a mature king penguin
in good condition averages forty-four
pounds.
Since South Georgia has been made a
political dependency of the Falklands,
the resident birds have come under the
protection of law, but perhaps too late
to save the king penguins because of the
impracticability of enforcing legal re-
straint along hundreds of miles of iso-
lated uninhabited coast.
Mimicking small brothers!
wiggled their tails and hurried back into the pond
I broke the spell by stooping to pat one on the head, when they all
90€
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ANCIENT GOLD ART IN THE NEW WORLD
By Herbert J. Spinden
HE Isthmus of Panama includes
part of Colombia and the entire
republics of Panama and Costa
Rica. It has long been famous for the
beautiful specimens of gold work, as
well as of pottery and stone sculptures
found in the stone-box graves of its
early inhabitants. Most of the gold
objects were seemingly worn as orna-
ments before being buried with their
In these gold objects the
characteristic animal life of the region is
represented and there are also many
figures with a mythological or religious
significance.
Gold is taken from only a_ small
percentage of the graves — probably
from those of chiefs. Pottery and stone
carvings are found in the ordinary run
of burials but rarely in the ones that
contain gold. A systematic rifling of
the ancient cemeteries by treasure-
hunters has been going on since the
coming of the Spaniards but most of
their finds have gone into the melting
pot. The burial places are sometimes
made evident by low platforms built
owners.
Notre sy tHE AuvutTHor.— The ancient gold
here described is part of a collection of more than
15,000 archeological articles in gold, stone and
pottery collected by Mr. Minor C. Keith in Costa
Rica. From this great collection about 7000
specimens chosen for exhibition and study, were
deposited by Mr. Keith in the American Museum
for an extended period. The exhibition now occu-
pies about one-third of the Mexican hall and is
unrivaled in beauty and richness as in more pro-
saic scientific virtues. The gold specimens are
installed in specially devised cases.
Mr. Keith went to Costa Rica when a young
man and engaged himself in the railroad building
and commercial developments which have brought
Costa Rica to the front rank among Central
American republics. Foreseeing the great possi-
bilities of tropical fruit in northern markets, he
was instrumental in organizing the United Fruit
Company which now operates the largest fleet of
steamships under the American flag. Under Mr.
Keith’s direction the growing, transporting and
marketing of bananas has been brought to such
over a number of graves. Sometimes
the searchers use an iron rod giving
forth a hollow sound when the stone
cists are struck. The graves are small
chambers lined with river boulders or
with slabs of stone. Bones are rarely
found in them but this may be no indi-
cation of great age, for the climate is
such as to hasten decay. There is little
doubt that the makers of the gold figures
were simply the ancestors of the Indian
tribes that now inhabit the region.
Costa Rica takes its name “rich coast”
from the large quantity of gold obtained
from the natives.
Mr. Keith’s collection, now on deposit
in the Mexican hall for a term of years,
is the finest ever made in Central
America. At Mercedes in northern
Costa Rica many hundreds of graves
were opened and a vast amount of pot-
tery and stone sculptures was taken out,
in addition to a considerable quantity
of gold and jade. At this place there
is now a great banana plantation but
formerly the site was covered with dense
forest. Mr. Keith relates that one night
high efficiency, that this wholesome fruit of the
torrid zone can now be purchased cheaply the
year round in every city, town and village in the
United States. The banana is grown in the humid
lowlands. The great plantations of the United
Fruit Company have been cleared from dark and
dripping jungle; problems of sanitation similar
to those encountered in building the Panama
Canal have been met and solved; railroads have
been laid across morasses; towns and cities have
risen where before there were a few palm-leaf huts
of squalid Indians.
It was in clearing a great banana plantation at
Mercedes that the remains of a prehistoric city
were found. Mr. Keith at his own expense, car-
ried on excavations for several years at this site,
and his interest increasing with the finds, he
extended the archzological survey to cover other
parts of Costa Rica. Thus it happens that there
is opened to the scientific world, results of explora-
tion in the humid lowland areas of Central
America to add to the results previously gained
from the more easily explored arid districts.
307
308
a storm swept over Mercedes and up-
turned a great tree. The next day in
the earth that still clung to the upturned
roots, he caught the glitter of gold and
upon examination thirty pieces of ancient
gold craft were found. The great tree
had grown over the grave of some for-
gotten chief and its roots had enmeshed
the funeral offerings. In addition to
long continued excavations at Mercedes,
supplementary work was carried on in
other parts of Costa Rica. Many fine
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
wax was melted out and a mould was
left. Hollow castings were made by
building the patterns over a core of clay
held in position by sprues or pins. Ina
number of specimens a portion of the
clay core can still be seen. The rough
castings were finished off by hammering
and burnishing. Two kinds of gold
plating were accomplished by the ancient
metal-workers. One is a heavy plating
made over copper and the other a very
It has
thin and impermanent gilding.
Birds of prey are often figured in a simple but forcible fashion, with spread wings and tail and out-
stretched talons.
neck as ornaments
examples of art in gold were found in the
region of Rio General.
The technical processes of the ancient
goldsmiths are admirably illustrated
in Mr. Keith’s collection. Many orna-
ments including the disk-shaped gorgets
are made of beaten gold and have de-
signs in repoussé. Others are castings.
Of the latter some examples were cast
in one piece and others in several pieces
afterwards welded together. The pat-
terns were made of resin or wax. They
were enclosed in clay and the resin or
These pieces have a ring at the back for suspension and were probably worn about the
been suggested that the molds were
lined with leaf gold or sprinkled with
gold dust before the copper was poured
in. The metal runs from pure gold to
pure copper with all the intermediate
alloys. In addition to copper, silver
and even platinum may occur as a
natural alloy in the gold. Bronze was
apparently not made. The gold was
obtained from placer deposits that some-
times yielded nuggets of good size.
The range of natural forms is well
covered. Human beings are represented
The gold objects cover the range of animal forms in the Isthmus. The tapir is represented in one
specimen while the jaguar and the monkey and various reptiles are favorite subjects. Sometimes com-
posite forms are seen
Human beings are represented either singly or in pairs. Various activities are shown. MHead-
dresses and necklaces are on the otherwise nude subjects, and objects such as bells are held in the hand.
A remarkable specimen [upper right-hand corner] shows a man being devoured by two vultures
309
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Although naively drawn. there is an unmistakable touch of nature in many examples. The student
of primitive peoples sees in these ancient pieces of gold craft the close relations existing between man
and the animal life that surrounded him. The animals that were powerful or possessed some special
efficiency were transformed into gods
Mr. Keith’s collection illustrates excellently the ancient processes such as hammering, engraving.
and hollow casting
312
ANCIENT GOLD FROM COSTA RICA
with peculiar headdresses and with vari-
ous objects carried in the hands. Some-
times they are joined in pairs. Many
of the most beautiful amulets are frogs
arranged either singly or in groups of
two or three. These little figures are
all provided on the under side with a
ring for suspension. Lizards, turtles and
crocodiles or alligators, are also rep-
resented in amulets. Clamshells were
used as beads and clever imitations of
them were made in gold. The monkey
is an interesting subject, and we find it
treated in the gold work much as it is
treated in the stone sculptures.
Perhaps the most numerous amulets
are those which figure birds with out-
stretched wings. Many of them are of
the vulture and harpy eagle types.
Others represent the gull, the man-of-
war bird and the parrot. An interesting
series of ornaments shows the amalga-
mation of two birds into a single figure.
Among the unique examples in the
Keith collection are a large spider with
egg ball attached, a fine figure of the
tapir, a curiously conventionalized but-
terfly, and a number of pins and odd
pendants which represent highly modi-
fied crocodiles and monkeys.
The more elaborate specimens of
ancient Costa Rican gold work deal with
religious subjects. In particular the
crocodile was deified and elaborated.
It is often represented with a human
body and a characteristic animal head.
The profile of the crocodile head is used
to embellish other forms. In pottery
and stone sculpture as well, the crocodile
motive is very prominent, while the
jaguar and various sorts of birds are
seen in many examples.
Perhaps the finest specimens of gold
work in the Keith collection are those
which show some of the highly conven-
tionalized figures of gods. One series of
such figures have canopies made of
313
rectangular gold plates on standards.
Others show the animal-god in question
performing some act. Examples of this
are two bird divinities, one with a lizard
and the other with a flying fish in its
mouth. In both cases the headdresses
of these deified birds are elaborated
with the profile head of the crocodile.
In another instance a bird is shown with
a fish in its mouth while four fish are
attached to its head and legs.
Gold and copper bells served as a
medium of exchange among the peoples
of Mexico and Central America. They
were all of the hawk’s bell type. The
gold bells of Costa Rica are exquisite
examples of metal work. Many of
them are modeled in the form of birds,
monkeys and grotesque heads.
Most of the tribes of Costa Rica
belong to the Chibchan linguistic stock
and are connected with the Indians of
Colombia. The languages however are
differentiated to such an extent as to be
mutually unintelligible. The political
units at the time of the Conquest were
small and there was no centralized
government. The Nicoyan peninsula
in northwestern Costa Rica and adja-
cent territory near Lake Nicaragua was
inhabited by the Chorotega or Mangue
Indians of a different linguistic stock.
Intrusive Nahuan tribes from the high-
lands of Mexico were also found here.
Gold becomes scarcer as we go north
from Colombia and Panama but identi-
cal processes of metal-working were in
use as far north as Central Mexico. The
succession and interrelation of the vari-
ous ancient civilizations have only been
roughly blocked out for the Isthmian
area. There isno doubt that the artistic
development extended over many centu-
ries. Many features of art and tech-
nology can be traced to Mexico and it
is hoped that future study will bring to
light connections with Peru.
FREDERIC WARD PUTNAM, 1839-1915
Professor Putnam was one of the most eminent American anthropologists. He had official con-
nection with many learned societies and had been decorated by the French Government with the
Cross of the Legion of Honor. It is directly due to his influence that anthropology has come to
occupy its present high position in American museums, making these institutions the instrument
of field research. Professor Putnam. was an optimistic believer that proofs of man’s presence in
America during the last period of glaciation will ultimately be found
FREDERIC WARD PUTNAM
By Clark Wissler
HE founder of anthropological re-
search in the American Museum,
Frederic Ward Putnam, died at
his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
Saturday, August 14, 1915. He was born
in Salem, Massachusetts, April 16, 1839.
He attended the Lawrence Scientific
School of Harvard where he studied
under the distinguished Agassiz. From
1857 to 1864 he was Agassiz’s laboratory
assistant, and later he was curator of
Vertebrata in the Essex Institute, Salem,
and also curator of ichthyology in the
Boston Society of Natural
Thus at an early age he began an un-
usual career in that he served a number
History.
of institutions simultaneously.!
Professor Putnam’s interest in anthro-
pology was a later development and
seems to have had its origin in his mu-
seum experience. He was above all a
genius In museum development and is
far and away the most conspicuous figure
1Some of the positions Professor Putnam has
held in corporations and institutions are as fol-
lows:— curator of ornithology, Essex Institute,
Salem, Massachusetts, 1856-1857; assistant to
Professor Louis Agassiz, Harvard University,
1857-1864; curator of Vertebrata, Essex Insti-
tute, 1864-1866; superintendent of the Essex
Institute Museum, 1866-1871; superintendent
Museum East Indian Marine Society, 1867-1869;
director Museum Peabody Academy of Science,
1869-1873; state commissioner of fish and game,
Massachusetts, 1882-1889; curator of ichthyol-
ogy, Boston Society of Natural History, 1859—
1868; permanent secretary, American Association
for the Advancement of Science, 1873-1898;
assistant Kentucky Geological Survey, 1874;
instructor, Penikese School of Natural History,
1874; assistant to United States Engineers in
surveys west of 100th meridian, 1876-1879;
assistant in ichthyology, Museum of Comparative
Zoology, 1876-1878; curator of the Peabody
Museum, 1875-1909; honorary curator, 1909;
honorary director, 1913; Peabody professor of
American archeology and ethnology, Harvard
University, 1886-1909; Peabody professor emeri-
tus, 1910; chief of department of ethnology,
World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1891—
1894; curator of anthropology, American Mu-
seum, New York, 1894-1903; professor of anthro-
pology and director of the Anthropological Mu-
seum of the University of California, 1903-1909;
professor emeritus of anthropology, 1909.
in the history of American museums.
Anthropology as we now use the term
had scarcely come into existence when
he took it up. Doubtless he saw in
America a great undeveloped field for
research and particularly for the investi-
gation of the antiquity and the origin
of man. At that time such museums
as there were, contented themselves with
receiving gifts of such random anthro-
pological specimens as came to their
doors, but Professor Putnam’s idea was
to make the museum an instrument of
field research, to go out with trained men,
collect, and study the evidences of man’s
antiquity on the ground. This is the
modern idea and it can truthfully be said
that Putnam is the father of municipal
anthropological research institutions in
America.
The Peabody Museum in Cambridge
as it stands to-day is due to his leader-
ship; his coming to the American Mu-
seum resulted in the development of
anthropology as a department of re-
search and the beginning of a policy
of extensive systematic field investiga-
tion. It was Professor Putnam who
encouraged the late Marshall Field to
establish in Chicago a great museum
which now bears his name, and it was
Professor Putnam who guided its de-
partment of anthropology through the
formative period. Later, he organized
a department of anthropology and a
museum at the University of California
where he was director for several years.
One of his strongest traits was his genius
in interesting wealthy men in museum
development. In almost equal measure
he had a way of inspiring capable young
men. Among those whose early anthro-
pological careers were under his guidance
are Franz Boas, Roland B. Dixon,
George A. Dorsey, Alice C. Fletcher,
315
d16
George Byron Gordon, M. R. Harring-
ton, A. Hrdlicka, A. L. Kroeber, Charles
W. Mead, Warren K. Moorehead,
George H. Pepper, Marshall H. Saville
and Harlan I. Smith.
When Professor Putnam was invited
to the American Museum by President
Morris K. Jesup, there had as yet been
no important anthropological expedi-
tions. At once Professor Putnam began
to solicit funds and soon had important
work under way. Among the most
important expeditions were the Hyde
explorations in the Southwest, resulting
in the famous discoveries at Pueblo
Bonito by George H. Pepper; the
Loubat Mexican expedition by Marshall
H. Saville; the organization of the Jesup
North Pacific work under the direction
of Professor Boas; and the Villard expe-
dition to Peru under A. F. Bandelier.
Under his own personal supervision
were the exploration of the Delaware
Valley for traces of early man and the
archeological investigations in the vicin-
ity of New York Bay. The field work
for the former was conducted by Ernest
Volk, and the latter by M. R. Harring-
Each of these undertakings yielded
important results and their published
ton.
reports are conspicuous in anthropologi-
cal reference literature. In these, as in
all other undertakings, Professor Put-
nam’s chief work was administrative,
but it was the kind of work that made
possible these several researches bearing
the names of others.
In the main the history of Professor
Putnam’s call to the American Museum
can be read in the following quotation,
from his own report to the trustees of the
Peabody Museum:
During the spring the trustees of the New
York Museum offered to me the position of
curator of the department of anthropology
of that museum, with the understanding that
I was to reorganize the department on a broad
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
basis, to plan for its future development and
for exploration, and to direct its work. The
opportunities here offered were in every way
worthy of my most earnest consideration;
_ but I felt that I could not leave the Peabody
Museum to which for the last twenty years I
have given my thought and my work. After
several conferences with the trustees of both
museums and with the president of the Uni-
versity, it was finally arranged that I should
continue my duties in Cambridge both in the
museum and in the college, and should also
accept the position of curator of anthropol-
ogy in the New York Museum to which I
should give one week each month. Thus since
the first of June I have held both positions, and
have so arranged my duties as to take one
week of each month for my work in New
York. This arrangement has thus far proved
possible and I trust satisfactory to all con-
cerned. My field of usefulness is certainly
increased, and I am confident that mutual
benefit will result from thus bringing into
perfect harmony two important centres of
anthropological research. The aims of the
two museums are different, and _ perfect
coéperation and harmony between them can-
not fail to result in benefit to science.— F. W.
PUTNAM
A continuation of the history of Pro-
fessor Putnam’s connection with the
American Museum is set forth in the
following quotation from a report of
1903 by Morris K. Jesup, the late presi-
dent of the American Museum:
Professor Putnam was appointed curator
of anthropology in the spring of 1894. At
that time the exhibition of the collections
relating to Man was confined to what is now
the shell hall on the fifth floor, and the west-
ern half of the bird gallery on the third floor.
There had been no systematic explorations,
no scientific publications, and the head of the
department had but a _ single assistant.
Within these ten years the department has
grown until, at the present time, the collec-
tions occupy eight large exhibition halls and
twelve storage rooms. Explorations have
been made throughout America and parts of
Asia, the scientific publications fill a score of
volumes, and the present department staff
includes no less than seven men of recognized
scientific attainments—— Morris K. Jesup
MUSEUM NOTES
As we are reviewing Professor Put-
nam’s work while he was connected
with the American Museum only, it is
not necessary to consider the expeditions
sent out under his direction from other
institutions. Yet, note may be made
of the fact that he is the most conspicu-
ous figure in Ohio mound exploration
and really began what the state of Ohio
is now carrying out so well—namely, a
systematic archeological exploration of
the entire state.
Although living to an advanced age
Professor Putnam was an enthusiastic
anthropologist to the very last. Just a
few weeks before his death the writer
received from him a long letter in his own
317
handwriting discussing the problem of
man’s antiquity in America. Notwith-
standing the disappointments in the pur-
suit of this problem, he was still cheerfully
optimistic and firm in the faith that we
should ultimately find satisfactory proof
of man’s presence in America during
the last period of glaciation.
His death marks the end of a long and
interesting career. To him was granted
the privilege of living happily and long
enough to see the results of his striving;
but what is still more, he continues to
live in the hearts of the many men and
women he has helped to something
better than they could have attained
alone.
MUSEUM NOTES
A RARE collection of archological objects
from the Department of Ica, Peru, was re-
cently purchased by Mr. A. D. Juilliard and
presented to the Museum. This collection
represents the results of numerous expedi-
tions during the last nine years by Mr.
Manuel Montero to the desert regions to the
south and west of Ica. These visits to the
prehistoric burial grounds were his vacations,
and every object in the collection was exca-
vated by him. The most notable objects are
nine large shawl-like garments covered with
conventionalized figures in embroidery. The
beautiful color schemes seen in these textiles
make them a joy to the artist, and they will
doubtless be copied eagerly by the numerous
art students who make constant use of the
Museum collections. Besides these shawl-
like garments there are many smaller pieces
of cloth which are highly ornamented.
The metal work of these ancient people is
represented by objects in silver and copper.
There are several pairs of large silver ear-
plugs, ornamented with embossed figures of
birds, silver tweezers also ornamented with
raised bird figures, and a number of shawl pins
with finely executed figures of birds and pumas
on the upper ends. The other objects in the
collection consist principally of the women’s
workbaskets, with spindles and various col-
ored threads, a loom with cloth in process of
weaving, feather ornaments, slings, musical
instruments and a few choice pieces of pottery.
Tue twentieth anniversary of the founda-
tion of the New York Botanical Garden at
Bronx Park was celebrated during the week
of September 6. As early as 1888 the need of
a botanical garden in the City of New York
was considered. In 1889 the Torrey Botani-
cal Club obtained the consent of the Depart-
ment of Public Parks to the establishment of
such an institution. By 1895 the necessary
sum of $250,000 had been subscribed, and the
site of the Garden covering an area of 250
acres had been selected. Through the
concerted efforts of the several committees
of the Torrey Club the Botanical Garden in
twenty years has acquired such an extensive
number of collections that an additional
appropriation of land has been made neces-
sary, totaling in the entire reservation nearly
four hundred acres.
Among the more important features of the
week’s program were the several sessions for
the reading of scientific papers, inspection of
various botanical exhibits, and visits to
Staten Island and to the Brooklyn Botanical
Garden. ‘
News of the safety of Vilhj4lmur Stefdns-
son, leader of the Canadian Arctic expedition,
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MUSEUM NOTES
and of his success in finding new land north
of Prince Patrick Island, has just been re-
ceived. After a dangerous trip of seven
hundred miles northward across the ice from
Martin Point on the mainland, Stefdnsson
and his two companions were able to reach
Bank’s Island. Here the winter was spent
and during the next spring exploration
toward the north resulted in the discovery of
land which may or may not be connected with
the supposed large land mass north of Alaska
and Siberia. In the meantime the Southern
Party of the expedition has been carrying on
work in geology, topography and ethnology
along the northern coast of Canada from the
Mackenzie River Delta to Coronation Gulf.
Because of the great delay through the loss
of the ‘‘Karluk” it is planned to continue
the explorations until 1917. A base camp
for the northern party has by this time
probably been established at the northern
end of Prince Patrick Island. This will allow
a wide radius for exploration over the ice
during 1916.
Tue Collins-Day South American expedi-
tion previously announced from these pages,
presented on its recent return large collec-
tions of birds and mammals to the Ameri-
can Museum. The interesting itinerary of
the expedition will be reported in a succeeding
issue of the JOURNAL.
ON June 24, the new orange, white and blue
flag designed for the municipal buildings of
the City of New York was hoisted on the
American Museum building, where it has
since floated on the tower of the east wing.
The colors under which the new Constitution
was founded in 1626 have again become the
official colors of the City, their renewed
adoption taking place on the 250th anni-
versary of the installation of the first Mayor
and Board of Aldermen. At the ceremonies
in commemoration of this anniversary and
of the adoption of the ancient civic emblem
as a new flag of the City, the American Mu-
seum was represented by the following dele-
gates: Messrs. Cleveland H. Dodge, Frederic
A. Lucas and Bashford Dean. The addresses
of the occasion were by Governor Charles S.
Whitman, Mayor John Purroy Mitchel,
William Robert Shepherd, professor of history
at Columbia University, and Dr. John H.
Finley, president of the University of the
State of New York.
319
Dr. Ropert H. Lowrie and four members
of the Museum resident in California, Dr.
Jaime De Angulo, and Messrs. W. B. Bourn,
William H. Crocker and William Kennon
Jewett, were appointed by the Museum
and the appointment officially confirmed by
Marcus M. Marks, president of the Borough
of Manhattan, to act as delegates on Man-
hattan Day, at the Panama California
Exposition in San Diego, August 9, and the
Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco,
August 19. 5
Tue third and final shipment of the Lang-'
Chapin collections from the African Congo
was received at the Museum in August.
Recent word from Mr. Lang indicates that’
he will probably arrive in New York about
the middle of October.
Tue American Dahlia Society in coopera-
tion with the Horticultural Society of New
York gave with gratifying success their first
annual exhibition of dahlias at the American
Museum of Natural History, September
24-26.
Durinc the summer President Osborn
accompanied the new Assistant Secretary of
the Interior, Hon. Stephen Tyng Mather, on
an excursion in the High Sierras, from the
region of the Sequoia National Park westward.
The tour included the ascent of Mount
Whitney and extended to Owen’s Lake on
the east of the Sierras, from which point the
party passed northward and took part in the
opening of the reopened roadway along the
line of the old Tioga Trail. The object of
Mr. Mather’s tour was to survey the region
lying west of the Sequoia National Park with
a view to its enlargement to include the.
superb region around Mount Whitney.
THE Museum was represented at the recent
meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science by Professor Henry
Fairfield Osborn and Dr. W. D. Matthew,
who took part especially in the conferences
and discussions on the past history of the
Pacific coast region during Miocene time.
The meeting was followed by an expedition
to the region of the Mohave Desert where
fossil beds containing horses, camels, and
other extensive Miocene forms have been
discovered within the last few years. Pro-
fessor John C. Merriam of the University of
320 THE AMERICAN
California, who led this excursion, has been
instrumental in presenting to the Museum
recently several very fine skeletons of the
mammals from the Rancho La Brea deposits
near Los Angeles, including a complete
sabre-tooth tiger and a complete wolf, which
are now being mounted as an addition to the
group exhibit prepared two years ago.
A sEerIEs of enlargements of the remarkable
photographs taken by the Australasian-Ant-
arctic expedition under Sir Douglas Mawson
has been placed on temporary exhibition in
the west assembly hall of the Museum.
Mr. N. C. NELson assisted by Mr. E. W.
Morris of the University of Colorado, has
completed for the time being the survey and
excavation of the Galisteo ruins. At San
Marcos, one of the largest of the ruins south
of Santa Fé, Mr. Nelson excavated 475 rooms.
Besides the San Marcos ruin five other ruins
were excavated. Mr. Nelson will also visit
the Mesa Verde country to inaugurate joint
work between the University of Colorado
and the American Museum.
TuHeERE has been on exhibition during the
past few months in the west assembly hall of
the Museum a collection of paintings and
bronzes by William de la Montagne Cary
from studies made by him in the West be-
tween 1861 and 1874. Mr. Cary’s sketches
are unusually interesting from the historic
standpoint. They record the phase of
western life when the buffalo was still on the
Plains and the Indians were living according
to their old ways.
Proressor A. L. Krorser of the Univer-
sity of California spent the month of July
and part of August among the Zuni of New
Mexico where he secured over nine hundred
specimens illustrating the everyday and re-
ligious life of these people. He made a de-
tailed study of their system of relations and
the terms employed to denote relationship.
Dr. Ciark WIssiLER, curator of the de-
partment of anthropology, has spent the
summer in an intensive study of the religious
ceremonies of the Pawnee, with the aid of
James Murie, the religious leader and chief of
the tribe. Mr. Murie is able to read and
write not only English but his own language
as well, using for the purpose an adapted
form of our ordinary alphabet.
MUSEUM JOURNAL
ATTENTION has already been called in the
notes of the JourRNAL to the remarkable
Laysan Island group in the University of
Iowa. The photograph published in this
number (page 266) represents one-tenth of
the whole cyclorama. Laysan Island in the
mid-Pacific has a surface of sand and ‘‘phos-
phate” rock and is encireled by an irregular
series of coral reefs. It has no human in-
habitants but in 1902 was said to be populated
by nearly ten million birds.
The group reconstructs this island, at-
tempting to show the real conditions on the
island and the twenty-four species of birds
nesting there. The canvas (138 ft. long) was
painted by Mr. C. A. Corwin and the fore-
ground (400 sq. ft.) was built by Mr. Homer
R. Dill, requiring three years to mount the
many birds and make the more than fifty
thousand artificial leaves and the grasses
used in the construction.
THE annual meeting of the National Asso-
ciation of Audubon Societies will be held at
the American Museum Tuesday, October 26.
Among other features there will be an exhi-
bition of motion pictures by Mr. Herbert K.
Job, who was sent by the Association on a
tour of inspection of the bird reservations in
Florida and Louisiana. It was during this
trip that Mr. Job was detailed by the Na-
tional Association as Colonel Roosevelt’s
photographer when the latter inspected the
bird islands off the Louisiana coast, made
reservations during his presidency.
Mrs. Wixi1aM M. Ivins has recently pre-
sented to the Museum a very valuable col-
lection of baskets from Arizona, California
and British Columbia.
Durina the past summer Mr. Roy C.
Andrews spent several weeks in the Adiron-
dack Mountains securing specimens and
material for a group of Virginia deer which
will be placed in the North American mam-
mal hall of the Museum. The site selected
for field study for the group was Shingle
Shanty Stream on the Brandreth Preserve.
Mrs. WILLIAM CHURCHILL, who was born
in Samoa and lived there for many years, has
presented to the Museum a large collection
of photographs and ethnological specimens
illustrating the native life of the Samoan
Islands.
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Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone
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The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working collection
of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and abroad.
The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays excepted —
from 9 a. M. to 5 P.M.
The Technical Publications of the Museum comprise the Memoirs, Bulletin and
Anthropological Papers, the Memoirs and Bulletin edited by J. A. Allen, the Anthropological
Papers by Clark Wissler.
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These publications cover the field and laboratory researches of
The Popular Publications of the Museum comprise the JourNaL, edited by Mary
Cynthia Dickerson, the Handbooks, Leaflets and General Guide.
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may be obtained from the Librarian.
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issued December, 1914. Price, 25 cents.
Tae CoLuection or Minerats. By Louis P. Grata-
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NortH AMERICAN RUMINANTS.
Price, 10 cents.
Tue Ancient Basket Makers OF SOUTHEASTERN
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PrimitivE Art. Price, 15 cents.
Tue Breps oF THE Vicinity or New York City. By
Frank M. Chapman, Se.D. Price, 15 cents.
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Tue METEORITES IN THE FOYER OF THE AMERICAN
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By Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D. Price, 15 cents.
New edition
By J. A. Allen, Ph.D.
Tue InpIANS OF MANHATTAN ISLAND AND VICINITY.
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Tue Stokes PAINTINGS REPRESENTING GREENLAND
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Brier History of ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.
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Tue Protection oF River AND HARBOR WATERS FROM
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By Mary
By Roy W. Miner, A.B.
Photographing the recently mounted skeleton of the giant dinosaur Tyrannosaurus, American
Museum of Natural History
TE ERS TT ET SES
THE
“AMERICAN MUSEUM
== jOURNAE =
Regs, BS
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A WOMAN
ELEPHANT HUNTER
NEW LAND IN THE
ARCTIC
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The American Museum of Natural History
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
President
Henry FAtRFIELD OSBORN
First Vice-President
CLEVELAND H. DopGE
Treasurer
CHARLES LANIER
Second Vice-President
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JoHN Purroy Mircuren, Mayor or THE City or NEw YORK
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Casot WARD, PRESIDENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
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or New Yor«K
SCIENTIFIC STAFF
FrepErRIc A. Lucas, Sc.D., Director
Geology and Invertebrate Paleontology
Epmunp Oris Hovey, Ph.D., Curator
Cuester A. Reeps, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Mineralogy
L. P. Gratacap, A.M., Curator
GeorGE F. Kunz, Ph.D., Honorary Curator Gems
Woods and Forestry
Mary Cynrutia Dickerson, B.S., Curator
Invertebrate Zodlogy
Henry E. Crampton, Ph.D., Curator
Roy W. Miner, A.B., Asst. Curator
Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
L. P. Gratacarp, A.M., Curator Mollusca
A. J. Mutcuuer, Assistant
Frank E. Warson, B.S., Assistant
W. M. Wueeper, Ph.D., Hon. Curator Social
Insects
A. L. TreapweEtt, Ph.D., Hon. Curator Annulata
Cuarwes W. Lena, B.S., Hon. Curator Coleoptera
Ichthyology and Herpetology
BasHrorp Dean, Ph.D., Curator Emeritus
Louis Hussaxor, Ph.D., Curator Ichthyology
Joun T. Nicuots, A.B., Asst. Cur. Recent Fishes
Mary Cynruia Dickerson, B.S., Assoc. Curator
Herpetology ;
Mammalogy and Ornithology
J. A. Atuen, Ph.D., Curator
Frank M. Cuapman, Se.D., Curator Ornithology
Roy C. Anprews, A.M., Asst. Cur. Mammalogy
W. DEW. Miter, Asst. Curator Ornithology
H. E. Antony, B.S., Assistant Mammalogy
Hersert Lana, Assistant Mammalogy
James P. Cuapin, Assistant Ornithology
Vertebrate Paleontology
Henry Farrrietp Ossorn, LL.D., D.Se., Curator
Emeritus
W. D. Marruew, Ph.D., Curator
WaLTER GRANGER, Assoc. Curator [Mammals]
Barnum Brown, A.B., Assoc. Curator [Reptiles]
Witiuiam K. Greaory, Ph.D., Assoc. in Palzon-
tology
Cuarues R. Eastman, Ph.D., Research Associate
Anthropology
CLARK WIssLER, Ph.D., Curator
Purny E. Gopparp, Ph.D., Curator Ethnology
Rosert H. Lowiez, Ph.D., Assoc. Curator
Hersert J. Sprinpen, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Nets C. Netson, M.L., Asst. Curator
Cuarues W. Meap, Asst. Curator
ALANSON SKINNER, Asst. Curator
Harwuan I. Smita, Hon. Curator Archeology
M. D. C. Crawrorp, Research Associate in Tex-
tiles
Anatomy and Physiology
Raupx W. Tower, Ph.D., Curator
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IsrarEuL J. Kuicuer, Ph.D., Assistant
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G. Cuyper Fisuer, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Ann E. Tuomas, Ph.B., Assistant
Books and Publications
Rautpeu W. Tower, Ph.D., Curator
Ipa Ricuarpson Hoop, A.B., Asst. Librarian
Tue American Museum Journa
VOLUME XV NOVEMBER, 1915 NUMBER 7
CONTENTS
Cover, The Staunch Support of the Explorer in North or South-polar Regions
Erontispiece, Record ‘Tusks from Mount Kenya....-...2.....2..0.e.2<.0: 322
Elephant Hunting on Mount Kenya.................... Cart E, AKELEY 323
A woman wins the record tusks for the Mount Kenya region. Illustrations from photo-
graphs by the Author
Reproductions in Duotone of Antarctic_Photographs............ opposite 338
Representative of the Australasian-Antarctic expedition under Sir Douglas Mawson.
Selected from the 115 enlargements of Mawson photographs on exhibition at the American
Museum of Natural History
The Stefansson Expedition of 1913 to 1915..Maysor GENERAL A. W. GREELY 339
A seven-hundred-mile ice trip of extreme hazard northward from the Canadian mainland
to Banks Land — Discovery of new land north of Prince Patrick Island
With map showing generalized route (through courtesy of the American Geographical
Society)
sthetome of the Hopi Indians: s.. 0... ce.6 2s. ese oe CuarRK WISSLER 343
A ‘‘human habitat group’’ constructed in the American Museum to show the home of the
Hopi people and their daily routine of life
Becmumes of Natural History. ........ 2.2.2.4. <6. CHARLES R. Eastman 349
Illustrated with drawings made some four centuries ago
Evolution of Arms and Armor...............-.eeeeeeeeeee BASHFORD DEAN 357
Calling attention to the marvelous armor collection at_the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York City, which gives opportunity for the study of armor historically and for a
comparative study relative to the fitness of armor for practical service in the present Euro-
pean war
Tsimshian Stories in Carved Wood........ LIEUTENANT GEORGE T. Emmons 363
Hanploriaeaspurof the Andes. ...... 0... ..0:..2. 0h ssegeue Leo E. MILLER 367
MNES SPE OLESEN hn ori wd st Sa cbane S-¥ Shed Et. 8S Mee ane = oo OS 372
Mary Cyrnraia Dickerson, Editor
Published monthly from October to May "by the American Museum of Natural History, at the
Cosmos Press, Cambridge, Mass. Terms: one dollar and a half per year, twenty cents per copy.
Entered as second<class: matter January 12, 1907, at the Post-Office at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress,
July 16, 1894.
Subscriptions should be addressed to the AMERICAN Museum JouRNAL, 77th St. and
Central Park West, New York City.
‘
The Journal is sent free to ali members of the Museum.
MRS. CARL E. AKELEY IN ELEPHANT COUNTRY
Tusks 112 and 115 pounds respectively, the record tusks for the Mount Kenya region
‘We ventured forth to lead Bibi to her prize, and a prize it proved to be, eleven feet
and two inches high at the shoulders, tusks nineteen and a half inches in circumference, and eight
feet ten inches long.... The record elephant for a woman and the record pair of tusks for a
sportsman’s license in British East Africa.... Our dusky followers in a weird chant, announced
the success of the day, telling their comrades of how Bibi had killed ‘‘tembo Kubwa.”’ There
within the glow of the camp fire Bibi held court while with simple childlike enthusiasm, our
little army of followers crowded around to offer their congratulations. ...’’ — p. 336.
322
THe AMERICAN Museum JourRNAL
VOLUME XV
NOVEMBER, 1915
NUMBER 7
ELEPHANT HUNTING ON MOUNT KENYA
A WOMAN WINS THE RECORD PAIR OF ELEPHANT TUSKS FOR A
SPORTSMAN’S LICENSE IN BRITISH EAST AFRICA
By Carl E. Akeley
Illustrations from photographs by the Author
N the past months we had hunted
with but poor success in the dismal
bamboo forests below the summit
of Abadare. We had plodded up and
down slippery leaf-strewn trails worn in
places by the passing of generations of
elephants into giant stairways, the steps
of which could be easily managed by
elephants, by even a toddling youngster
of only half a ton weight, but which
to puny man were exceedingly difficult
of negotiation, even with the helping
hand of a companion or the aid of a
projecting root or convenient bamboo.
We had been enticed back and forth
through the icy waters of mountain
streams, Bibi! carried on the shoulders
of stalwart natives. We had bivouacked
many a dark night on the trail around a
At alittle
distance on one. side always blazed
blazing fire of dead bamboo.
another fire where the Masai trackers
and Kikuyu guide, stripped to the waist,
prepared their food. On the other side
still a third fire crackled in the mudgt of
a busy group of gun-bearers and portiss,
Swahili, Myamwezi, Kamba and Baz
ganda. Under such conditions Bit:
snugly rolled in her blankets fell_asleepe =
1 Bibi, pronounced as though spelled “‘ Beebe,’” ~.
is Swahili for ““woman’’ and the name by which
Mrs. Akeley was known among the native mem-
bers of the expedition.
323
scart
. My a
d24 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
to be awakened at early dawn by the
distant trumpeting of elephants.
Many another night we had forgotten
disappointment and weariness in a
comfortable camp, perhaps lulled to sleep
despite the cries of hyenas and the cough-
ing of leopards which gathered about
the camp, by the patter of raindrops
on the tent.
Now at sundown of the third day
on the trail of an old bull elephant, we
came out of the bamboos, up on the
heather-clad summit of Abadare Moun-
tain. The spoor here led us along a
migration path, a path over which
countless thousands of elephants must
have passed in their migrations from one
feeding ground to another, for in places
the solid rock was worn to a depth of
several inches.
We were greatly discouraged and
camped beside the trail. The little
firewood that we were able to collect
was so wet that it required a forced
draught to keep it alight and after pre-
paring our supper the fire was allowed to
die down; and Bibi slept with nothing
but her blankets to protect her from the
rain and frost.
When in the morning we had emerged
from our chrysalids of icy blankets,
thawed ourselves out and were prepar-
ing to start on our return journey, the
sun broke through and dispelled the
mists, disclosing to our view a scene
which held us spellbound; from our
feet, down between the glistening slopes
of a bamboo-clad valley, on and across
a billowy sea of fleecy clouds, to the
rugged, rocky, snow-clad peaks of Mount
Kenya, our gaze roamed and lingered.
Many times during the past months
had we seen this beautiful mountain
and from many points, but never so
close, and never had it so impressed us.
We knew of it as a land of promise to the
elephant hunter, but it was forbidden
ground, and we little dreamed that it
would ever be for us to try our fortunes
within the domains of this snow-mantled
goddess of the Equator. We turned
wearily to retrace our steps campwards,
determined to strike into the mountains
farther to the north.
We were off bright and early on the
following morning to the Government
Boma at Nvyeri, along the summit of
the Abadare, down into the moss and
creeper-draped forest of the lower levels,
and out into the open hill country of the
Wakikuyu.
When at Boma however, we received
information which gave us a new hope.
Instead of going back into the moun-
tains, we made a two-day march to Fort
Hall where to our great delight, we re-
ceived permission to hunt elephants on
Mount Kenya.
We went from Fort Hall to the base
of Kenya, through the thickly populated
country of the Wakikuyu, where no
white woman had passed before, which
until within a few months had been un-
safe for a white man. The first sign of
our quarry was a field of sweet pota-
toes which had been “harvested” by
elephants the night before. Bibi re-
mained at first with the main camp at
the edge of the forest. The remainder
of the expedition spent many days in
locating the feeding grounds of the ele-
phants in the primitive forest and in
the bamboo jungle farther up the moun-
tain side; and two exciting days with a
herd of elephants in jungle so dense that
we could almost touch, but scarcely see
them, finally killing two bulls, one azzs:..
“charger”? who gave us no choice*but to ~
kill or be killed. All this however I
shall pass over, for this is to be the story
of Bibi’s hunt.
Finally we sent a message bidding
Bibi come; with the keenness of an old
campaigner she brought the safari to the
te
Sounds of elephants in the jungle enticed the hunters back and forth through icy streams, Mrs.
Akeley carried on the shoulders of stalwart natives
Cunningham at work on an elephant skin in the Kenya forest. At this time he was having his
first experience as an expedition guide, but is now well known for his professional work as safari
manager for the Roosevelt and other important expeditions
325
dNVO SONIMVW NOILIGSdX]a AATANV AHL
LOE
YOOI 9BIVL] OY} JO oseq oY} 9B PUNOIZ9IOJ oy UI ST AOTOHYW ‘SayAT
“MOMRAOTO SIT) 9B PUNOJ o1OM S}PURYAoTS JO Syovs} YSoIy ‘oULISIP oY} UT Woos ospra oy} JO doy oY} WoT SINOY OM sopnqy[e Joos OOO'ST Inoqy
VANAM LNNOW NO ANI1 YSEWIL AA08V
328
appointed place in the forest. Having
exhausted my sportsman privileges so far
as bulls were concerned, the only chance
of adding a needed fine male elephant
to the collection was through Bibi.
A bad start was made on this occasion:
the two highly perfumed Kikuyu guides
ran us around in circles, while the ten
porters carrying camp equipment and
rations for four days, contributed to the
annoyance and delay by continually
falling behind and losing themselves in
the jungle. About noon we came to a
fresh trail, not of elephant, but of our
own making where we had passed three
hours before. Considerable valuable
time was then devoted to sitting on a log
while the Swahili interpreter cursed the
guides in Swahili, Kikuyu, and several
other dialects, and the gun-bearers
rounded up the porters, after which we
administered a fine of a week’s wages
all around, put the guides in the rear and
struck a course due northwest, by com-
pass.
The guides came up at regular inter-
vals with the protest that if we continued
in that direction, we would come to a
stream, crossing which would land us
in the country of a hostile tribe and we
would be promptly annihilated. We
continued on however until dark with-
out reaching the dead-line or finding
spoor fresh enough to tempt us away
from our course. This course had led us
through the more open ground of the
timber belt which les between the
shambas (cultivated fields) and the
bamboo forests. It was here that we
hoped to cross the spoor of elephants
where they had passed from one to the
other of these, their two favorite feeding
grounds.
We made our camp beside a great
fallen tree whose dry top afforded a good
supply of firewood; water was brought
from a hundred yards down the slope
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
where an ice-cold rivulet had found a
bed in the sombre shade of great ebony-
stalked tree-ferns. Amidst such scenes
as these the weariness and disappoint-
ments of a hard day of fruitless hunting
become as but the memory of an un-
pleasant dream, and by the time camp is
made and tired limbs are stretched
before the fire, we are longing for the
morning, that we may be off again,
away through the great, mysterious
forest, forgetting at times, as we go,
the main object of our search, lost in
admiration of the weird and sombre
vistas, brightened here and there by
festoons of flowering vines or the crim-
son flash of a plantain-eater’s wings.
As we travel along through the forest
gloom, silently, in harmony with our
surroundings, we may be startled from
our reveries by the hoarse leopard-like
bark of an old Colobus monkey, followed
by the wild reckless rush of the whole
troop as they make for the topmost
branches of some great forest tree. There
they sit motionless, invisible, although
in plain view, their white plumed tails
waving gently in the breeze, midst wav-
ing streamers of moss.
Guided by the compass, we had trav-
eled less than an hour next morning when
we came to the spoor of an old bull,
where he had been mooning about,
feeding, during the night. Following it,
we soon became lo t in a maze of tracks
which seemed to indicate that not only
one but three or four old fellows had
spent the night in and about the some-
what open forest in which we now found
ourselves.
For a long time we puzzled about on
these tracks trying to strike a lead,
but more often than not coming back
to a familiar spot. Then we would
strike off and pick up the spoor in a new
place only to be led back to the unsolv-
able network of tracks again. At one
ELEPHANT HUNTING ON MOUNT KENYA
place the “big one’’ had lain down (an
unusual act for an elephant) flat on his
side, the imprint of his great body, head
and tusks being clearly outlined on the
soft earth, while the zone of flattened
vegetation marked the reach of his
proboscis.
The game of blind man’s-buff contin-
ued until we were well-nigh discouraged;
for roaming about in this way, we were
in constant peril of getting to the wind-
ward of the animals who would then
move away and leave us far behind —
before we would discover what had
happened. At last as we were working
about in scattered formation, trying to
solve the puzzle, one of the Kikuyu
guides came scuttling back to us with
distorted features and frenzied gesticu-
lations. We promptly dropped to a
kneeling position as a signal to the por-
ters behind us, who noiselessly deposited
their loads and themselves about the
base of a tree. We crept carefully
forward to the second Kikuyu, who had
remained on guard and now stood with
his eyes riveted to some object beyond
a clump of dense high bush. As we
approached him there dawned upon our
vision, through the mist, the indistinct
outline of the great rounded back of a
“big un.” He was feeding, quite uncon-
scious of approaching danger, as he
moved leisurely along a few steps at a
time, reaching this way and that with
his trunk, breaking off choice bits of
food. There was little time for con-
templation of the picturesque however,
for the wind was shifty and he was work-
ing dangerously near to the concealed
porters. He might at any moment
crash away without giving us a view of
his ivory, the size of which might be an
important factor in the determination
of his fate.
With Bibi in the choice of positions,
we crept carefully forward behind the
329
low-hanging branches of a vine-draped
tree to within forty feet of where the
giant stood. Breathlessly we waited
until, as he moved slowly forward, there
came into view a splendid pair of tusks
followed by the massive head and great
flapping ears of the best elephant we had
seen. What a monster he looked as
Bibi raised her rifle and with steady
aim, placed a bullet in just the right
place. As he collapsed two more like
messages were despatched and a few
minutes later, Bibi stood beside the
prostrate form of her prize. He was a
fine specimen, standing ten feet and ten
inches high at the shoulders and carry-
ing one hundred and eighty pounds of
ivory.
We promptly decided to preserve the
skin for mounting. A series of photo-
graphs, sketches and measurements nec-
essary in mounting were then made.
The guides were sent back to the main
camp to bring up additional porters with
a full camp equipment; and the opera-
tion of removing a two-thousand-pound
skin was begun. To preserve an ele-
phant skin is no easy task, even under
the most favorable conditions, and es-
pecially is it difficult in a dense forest
on a mountain side in the interior of
Africa. The skin must be put in shape
to be carried by native porters down
through the mountain forests and
jungles, many miles, on through the
open hill-country to the plains, and then
a hundred miles farther, to the railway.
We began our task at twelve o’clock,
noon, and we worked without stopping
even for food until four o’clock, next
morning. The skin was then off, in
three parts, lying on the cool, damp
ground, and the carcass was left to the
scavengers — natives, leopards, hyenas
and the smaller carnivorous animals.
When we returned to our work next
morning, it was apparent that the hungry
Osé
ot) Sv UOOS oq OF AOU ST TOTUTOOdS STITT,
spunod ¢6 pur g6 Ysiom sysnj ot, “OsRolyO “TanoOsn yal plow ou ur dnoas gueydoyo om Ur [Tad OSI]
YaNMSNL LSYI4 SAF TANV ‘SH
ELEPHANT HUNTING ON MOUNT KENYA dol
ones had all been there for their portion,
and on following one of the many trails
which radiated in all directions through
the jungle, we found several huge pieces
of flesh where the leopards had concealed
them for future reference.
The news of a kill spreads rapidly
among the native Wandorobo hunters
and in a short time they had gathered
from all quarters. Little camps of men,
women and children, were scattered all
about the place, while over each fire
festoons of elephant ‘“biltong’’ were
being cured for the future. The killing
of an elephant is a blessing to these poor
wretches.
Finally six days had passed, six days
of exhausting, disagreeable work; but
the skin, reduced by shaving to half its
original weight, and thoroughly salted,
had been made into three oblong pack-
ages and firmly lashed to long
ready for the porters, four or more for
poles,
each load, to begin their heart-breaking
journey out of the forest. All in camp
were now in good spirits for the worst
of the work was past; the sick had
recovered — there had been much illness
in camp during the week, and everyone
was keen to be on the hunt again.
The guides and gun-bearers had been
sent out to determine, if possible,
whether or not there were elephants in
the vicinity. There still remained the
cow to be secured, and Bibi was en-
titled to another bull—if she could
get him. Before noon the gun-bearers
returned to report that they had found
a herd only two hours from camp.
For an hour and a half we followed
our guides along well-defined _ trails
through the heavy timber, where there
was a minimum of undergrowth to im-
pede our progress. When we came to
the place where the herd had been seen
we began beating about in an effort to
locate a trail which would give some
indication of the direction in which they
had gone, but before we had succeeded in
this, a squeal of fright and a mighty
crash warned us that the honor of dis-
covery belonged with the elephants.
We had unwittingly given them the wind
and they were off. We had every reason
to hope that they would not go far before
settling down again, as these elephants
have had but little experience with the
terrible white man and his weapons.
As they were scattered about feeding,
at the time they took alarm, it required
some little time to pick up the main trail
where they had moved off in a body,
but within a half hour we were within
hearing distance of them, and_ the
occasional crack of a breaking branch
told us that they were quietly feeding
again. The wind being favorable, we
worked carefully forward, until when
nearing their position, there was a
sudden movement of the whole herd
across our front, and the sudden appari-
tion of the great rounded back of an
elephant, ten paces in front, combined
with the noise made in the hurried “ get
away’ of a troup of Colobus monkeys
in the tree tops above us, was sufficient
to create the impression that we were
surrounded by elephants.
much
It was too
Bibi’s overstrained. nerves
and she ran back a few steps, exclaim-
for
ing under her breath, “They are com-
ing!’ Then, checking herself, she stood
while the whole herd passed in front
showing only the tops of their heads and
backs above the high dense bushes.
They had not detected our presence
and all was well, provided Bibi had not
lost her “ nerve,”’ in which case we would
have to give up the hunt. Had we not
been screened from sight of the elephants
when she ran, the move might have led
to disaster. None realized this more
keenly than did Bibi herself, but when
the question of giving up was put to her,
332
she had regained her self-control and
was determined to go on.
The last move of the herd had put us
in danger of being betrayed by the wind
again, which made it necessary to act
quickly. We worked around to head
them off where they had come to a stand
in a thick bit of wood whose outer edge
was a dense impenetrable mass of green-
ery. This screen effectively concealed
us as we cautiously threaded our way
along an overgrown trail, using the ut-
most precaution to avoid the cracking
of twigs or scraping of harsh leaves
against our clothing. We were very
close to the elephants and the slightest
sound might be detected by their keenly
They
quiet, except for the occasional rumble
of a stomach, which indicated peace and
sensitive ears. were perfectly
unconcern on their part. It was jumpy
work, creeping along at a snail’s pace,
where the slightest misstep might cause
the stampede of a herd of elephants,
who would be quite as likely to come
our way as any other. The screen
impenetrable to us would be no barrier
to their huge bulk. At last we came toa
more open path beneath the larger trees
that sheltered them, and as we worked
carefully along, we could see here and
there, patches of rough barklike skin.
A youngster about four feet high was
to be seen toddling about on an inde-
pendent excursion, amongst the legs of
his elders.
Now that we had succeeded in placing
ourselves among them, our work was cut
out. We were to get a cow if possible.
Before shooting we must make certain
that the specimen chosen was a cow;
moreover that it was a good one, such as
would properly represent the species;
not an easy task in such dense cover.
As we stalked stealthily along the line
we received a number of thrills. A bull
whose suspicions were aroused, stood
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
head on with his great ears thrown
forward, listening, his trunk thrown
forward and up “feeling for wind.”
Another old fellow walked out to the
path on which we stood, only a few yards
away, deliberated a few moments, and
to our great relief decided to go down
the path, away from us. At such times
we dared not stir, for elephants are quick
to detect moving objects.
We followed down the path, in the
wake of the bull who was moving away,.
in search of the coveted cow, but we had
gone but a short distance when we were
stopped by one of the gun-bearers who.
declared in sign language, that we had
passed an elephant with ivory as large
as a man’s thigh. We retraced our
steps somewhat reluctantly to the place
from where we could see the elephant
which had previously shown signs of
suspicion, and there, just behind and
towering high above him stood a lordly
fellow who until now had escaped our
notice. We got a glimpse of the upper
part of one tusk and it seemed very large
in diameter; but that was not enough,
we must determine its length, and if it
Much of the largest ivory
After a time,
by dint of stooping low and peering be-
neath the bushes, we saw as the elephant
stepped forward a pace, the tip of a
tusk within fifteen inches of the ground.
From that lofty head to within fifteen
inches of the ground certainly meant
a big tusk — good enough even though
it had no mate. This decision was
scarcely reached when a turn of his head
revealed to us the tip of its mate, of the
same length.
Excitement ran high. It was the big
pair that we had often seen in our “ pipe
Bibi prepared to take the
shot, with the understanding that when
she had fired we would run down the
path to the protection of a clump of
had a mate.
is that of single tuskers.
dreams.”’
Mrs. Akeley and Cunningham, with the Kenya record elephant shot by Mrs. Akeley. This
elephant stood eleven feet two inches high at the shoulders and carried tusks weighing 112 and 115
pounds
333
er
large trees, for it seemed quite probable
that the inevitable stampede would be
in our direction.
Bibi
preparations for attack and
was none too soon with her
retreat.
Although up to this time the big one had
been protected by the body of the nerv-
ous member, the latter now scenting
danger, wheeled around, exposing for
an instant, the ear of the big one ere
His
head was raised, ready for the rush when
he had time to follow the lead.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Bibi’s gun sent forth its message, and
as he quivered and drooped two more
shots followed and with Bibi we made a
dash for the protection of the trees.
After the first crash of the herd’s de-
parture all was still, and for a time we
were uncertain as to whether they had
gone or had stopped — with the possible
intention of returning to investigate —
in which case we would likely have a
very busy time of it. They had gone
however, covering their retreat with that
‘The Christening.”
jelly-like pulp in the base of the tusk be drawn out, its tip cut, and a cross marked with the blood on the
forehead of the young hunter.
master of ceremonies
— An Abyssinian custom among elephant hunters requires that the cone of
Cunningham in his authority as an elephant hunter of long standing was
VOINAV LSVA HSILIYE “ATON AAILVN YISHL NI SLNWHd413
336
marvelous silence which often attends
their movements when frightened.
After waiting and listening for a time
we ventured forth to escort Bibi to her
prize, and a prize it proved to be, eleven
feet and two inches high at the shoulders,
tusks nineteen and a half inches in cir-
cumference, and eight feet ten inches
long, right and left weighing, respectively
one hundred and fifteen, and one hun-
dred and twelve pounds. The record
elephant for a woman, and with her first,
the record pair for a sportsman’s license
in British East Africa.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
After making a few hurried measure-
ments and photographs, and detailing
a guard of four porters to stay with the
prize, we started back to camp. Bibi
will not soon forget that mad race against
time to gain the shelter of camp ere dark-
ness overtook us. As the last rays
-of the equatorial sun withdrew from
Kenya’s cold unresponsive summit, and
daylight shrank from before the weird
shadows and mysterious voices of the
tropical forest night, we sighted the
cheery fires of the camp. Our dusky
followers in a weird chant, announced
In elephant country on Mount Kenya, at an elevation of 8000 feet in the heavy forest belt
Photo by DeWitt C. Ward
MRS. CARL E, AKELEY, NEW YORK CITY, 1915
337
338
the success of the day, telling their com-
rades of how Bibi had killed “tembo
kubwa.”’ There within the glow of the
camp fire Bibi held court while with
simple childlike enthusiasm, our little
army of followers crowded around to
offer their congratulations.
Next morning we moved camp to a
circular, turf-carpeted clearing, near to
the fallen elephant, in order that we
might care for our prize without a long
trek to and from the camp. “Tembo
Circus” as we called it, was the one
bright, cheerful camping place of our
whole elephant hunt. Here, while we
continued the search for a cow elephant,
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Bibi spent many days surrounded by the
ever new, ever changing scenes of primi-
tive life. The forest now sheltered doz-
ens of camps of Wandorobo who had fol-
lowed us hither to reap the harvest of the
last kill. Every day little bands of na-
tives came in from the shambas with offer-
ings for the “ Bibi Mzungu,” or to gossip
with our followers. Diversion was also
afforded by her little “zoo” which was
stocked by the Wandorobo boys whose
services she had enlisted. In the crude
cages built by her boys, the monkeys, an-
telopes, and hyrax soon learned to know
her, and to tell her stories of their lives
in the unexplored depths of the forest.
Bibi at “°Tembo Cireus ’’ with a member of her “ zoo.’’ Tembo Circus near the spot where the
record elephant was shot by Mrs. Akeley, was the camp of the Akeley expedition in 1906.
Since that
time this camping place has been used by Colonel Roosevelt and by Stewart Edward White and inter-
esting mention is made of it in their African writings
REPRODUCTIONS OF PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE WORK OF THE
AUSTRALASIAN-ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION UNDER
SIR DOUGLAS MAWSON
Selected from the one hundred and fifteen enlargements of Mawson photographs on exhibition at the American
Museum. [The captions are quotations from Mawson's The Home of the Blizzard |
“THE NUGGETS" BEACH, MACQUARIE LAND
Royal penguins from rookeries on the hills come down in long processions each day to fish on the beach
Photographs reproduced through the cour-
tesy of Mr. Lee Keedick of New York City,
lecture manager for Sir Douglas Mawson
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ON THE EDGE OF AN ICE RAVINE, ADELIE LAND
‘‘The difficulties of exploration in cold regions approximate to the limit of human endurance and often
enough exceed it."" Bridges of soft snow over the crevasses of the glacier may give way,
opening up gaping holes into the darkness of chasms below. ‘.. . I seemed
to stand alone on the wide shores of the world. . . .
AN ICE CLIFF, ADELIE LAND
Walls of ice came down steeply to the sea, ‘‘ floating extensions of land ice and glacier tongues, riven and dis-
torted by gaping crevasses." ‘‘Adélie Land is so overwhelmed with ice that even at sea level
the rock was entirely hidden. Here was a picture of Northern Europe
during the ‘Great Ice Age,’ some 50,000 years ago”
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THE STEFANSSON EXPEDITION OF 1913 TO 1915
By Major General A. W. Greely, United States Army
HE history of polar expeditions
equals, relatively speaking, that
of any other phase of explora-
tion in its romantic episodes of unex-
pected and thrilling character. The
retreat of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane across
Melville Bay, the ice-drift of Captain
George E. Tyson of eighteen hundred
miles, the boat journey of Admiral
George T. Melville to the Lena Delta,
a ere
SKETCH MAP TO ILLUSTRATE
STEFANSSON'S EXPLORATIONS
1914-1915
Scale “90
=-—-/ce journey fo Banks | March—June /9/4
—-—- Land journey to C Kellett Sept 19/4
ereeeee Winter journey C. Kellett to Victoria / 19/4-15
100 ) 200 Miles
4
80
+—+4+=Sea Aoute Burnett Bay to New Land /9/5
- Return New Land to C Kellett Jul.Aug 1/5 d
Surveyed by Stefansson x4 &
CS
Lands End& <=
+ en d
and the rescue of the shipwrecked
American whalers at Point Barrow by
Lieutenants D. H. Jarvis and E. P.
Bertholf, are marvelous successes of
American adventurers which every red-
blooded individual reads with rapt at-
tention and stirred emotions. It seems
surprising that those who control the
development of the minds of the rising
generation do not supplant trashy and
AS Si
Courtesy of the American Geographical Society
The new land in 77° 43’ N. latitude and 115° 43’ W. longitude, was discovered on June 18, 1915.
It was explored for three days only and through one hundred miles of coast only, but from an elevation of
2000 feet twenty miles inland, mountains were seen at least fifty miles farther.in all directions to the
north and east (the land was low to the west).
The route traveled as shown on the map is of course generalized and the distances fall far short of
the actual distances covered, which were made longer and indirect because of drift due to contrary winds
and currents
339
340
debasing fiction by tales which tell of
man’s control and courage while facing
actual and desperate conditions.
To these wonderful victories of peace
over the elements of nature, is now added
the story of the hazardous sledge-
journey, the successful endurance, the
wonderful resourcefulness and the final
discovery of hitherto unknown land by
Vilhjélmur Stefansson.
The trustees members of the
American Museum of Natural History
are especially interested in the success of
Stefansson in his polar expedition of
1913-15. Under the auspices of the
American Museum, Stefdnsson scientifi-
cally explored the Canadian shores of
Arctic America, in 1906-07 and 1908-12.
The American Museum in conjunction
with the National Geographic Society
financed at first the present expedition,
from which the two societies withdrew
in favor of Canada when the Dominion
Government expressed its desire to
outfit and control the expedition.
Three objective points were in view:
the discovery of the land predicted by
Greely and by Harris to the northwest
of Banks Land; the completion of the
charting of the unvisited northern coasts
of Victoria Island and of Prince Patrick
Island; and the geological, anthropo-
logical and biological exploration of the
coasts east of the Mackenzie River.
The first work was to be done with the
“Karluk,” the largest ship.
and
She was
beset however, off the northeastern coast
of Alaska in August 1913, and later,
driven by violent gales, she drifted
northwest to 73° N. latitude, 164° W.
longitude, and thence to the southwest,
sinking from ice-pressures January 11,
1914.
Fortunately Stefansson was ashore
hunting when the “Karluk” began her
drift. With his largest ship gone, his
force largely diminished and his main
supplies lost, he faced conditions which
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
would have seemed hopeless to a man
of weaker fibre. His courage never
failed nor was his purpose shaken.
What he had planned to do by ship and
sledge was now to be done by sledge
alone, as far as geographical work was
concerned. Dr. R. M. Anderson was
given his ship for the scientific work
in the Mackenzie region, while Stefans-
son bent his energies to his sledge
journey, which necessarily was to be
northward over the rough ice of that
portion of the Arctic Ocean, known as
Beaufort Sea. A supporting sledge ac-
companied him in March, 1914 to the
Continental Shelf, located in about 70°
20’ N. latitude, 140° 30’ W. longitude.
On April 7, 1914, Stefansson started
north, with Anderson and Storkersen,
six dogs, 360 rounds of ammunition
and food for about forty days. Such
a journey would seem to the ordinary
man as certain of failure, but Stefansson
well knew the methods of sea-floe life
and the possibility of living on game.
He was destined to have his courage,
skill and determination put to the se-
verest tests. Violent gales, enormous
pressure ridges, and absence of game
were experienced until on April 27 he
was forced to alter his course. He was
then in 73° N. latitude, 140° W. longi-
tude, about two hundred and fifty miles
of travel from the Alaskan coast. He
was in the middle of Beaufort Sea,
which although ice-clad showed the
effects of the spring sun by its disin-
tegrating floes. He decided to go to
the northwest point of Banks Land,
about three hundred miles distant. On
May 5 his kerosene was gone, and he
was barely able for days to melt with
lard (carried to oil the boat tarpaulin)
enough floe-ice to quench thirst. Ten
days later Stefansson saw the first seal,
and the nerve of the hunter was shown
by his killing it with a brain shot at
three hundred yards. On May 24 when
THE STEFANSSON EXPEDITION
within forty-five miles of Banks Land
a violent southeasterly gale, of twelve
days duration, sent the party seaward
to a point one hundred and five miles
from shore. Stefansson took matters
philosophically, as he was on a floe over
one hundred feet thick. Devoting ener-
gies to hunting the men accumulated
two tons of meat against emergencies.
It was not until June 26, that they set
foot on land sixty miles south of Cape
Albert. For ninety-six days they had
lived on the moving ice-pack.
They summered on Banks Land,
killing thirty-nine caribou and _ storing
up supplies against any mischance.
Despairing of the arrival of either of
their two ships, they started south in
September with packs, and found the
““Mary Sachs” already in winter quar-
ters, although as Stefansson reports “the
sea was absolutely clear of ice.’ Neither
of his ships obeyed orders and Stefans-
son’s safety was the result of his own
efforts — the excuse being that they
thought he had perished. As Stefansson
had been absent seventeen months there
were some grounds for such belief.
Accidents prevented Stefansson taking
the field again effectively until April 5,
1915. Then he was delayed by a south-
westerly drift of twenty-four miles in
his effort to explore the sea to the north-
west of Banks Land, and was forced to
turn back from 76° 40’ N. latitude, about
seventy-five miles offshore. After chart-
ing the unknown parts of the north coast
of Prince Patrick Island the party dis-
covered in June a new land, whereon
they landed on the nineteenth. As far as
seen, the land covers an area of about five
thousand square miles, is rugged and
mountainous, and its southern shore
trends from west by north to east by
south. About one hundred miles of
coast were covered during three days of
travel. The only point astronomically
determined was in 77° 43’ N. latitude,
341
115° 43’ W. longitude. It is interesting
to note that this land is but some fifty
miles distant from the farthest point
reached on Prince Patrick Island by
McClintock in 1853.
Stefansson considers that the new
land is one of considerable extent. It is
situated about one hundred miles to the
west. of the Ringnes Land, discovered
by the Sverdrup expedition in 1901.
It thus extends some ten degrees of
longitude to the westward of that polar
archipelago (west of northern Green-
land), fringing the great frozen Arctic
Ocean, of which the most easterly island
is Grinnell Land; the most westerly
known is the new land of Stefansson.
It is most probable that Stefansson’s
Land extends far westward, or north-
westward, in the shape of an island with
probably a low-lying area of large size
whereon are formed the great floe-bergs
of which Stefansson saw many in the
course of his sledge trip over Beaufort
Sea in 1914. It is worthy of note that in
all his periods of danger and of distress
Stefansson kept up his observations.
His soundings are of special value as
indications of land and sea distribution.
While the Continental Shelf of eastern
Alaska is about seventy miles offshore,
Stefansson’s soundings prove that it
closely fringes the west coast of Banks
Land. While this is not conclusive, yet
it apparently indicates that the unknown
lands lie rather to the northwest of Banks
Land and Prince Patrick Island.
In any event there is reason soon
to expect definite information on this
point, as Stefansson sailed from Herschel
Island August 23, and northward from
Cape Kellett September 3 to carry on
further explorations. Meanwhile the
world awaits his further report, with
confidence that it will materially reduce
the vast area of unknown regions which
has hitherto disfigured the charts of the
North-polar Circle.
CVE
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IN THE HOME OF THE HOPI INDIAN
“HUMAN HABITAT GROUP’’ CONSTRUCTED IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM —
IT GIVES A FEELING OF THE GREAT OPEN LANDSCAPES WHERE THE HOPI
INDIAN LIVES—A SNAPSHOT OF TYPICAL HOPI PEOPLE PURSUING THE
By Clark Wissler
ROUTINE OF THEIR DAILY LIFE
NEW life-size Indian group has
just been completed in an annex
A to the hall for the Southwest.
It presents a scene among the Hopi of
Arizona, one of the best known groups of
Pueblo Indians. In general plan the
construction is similar to the bird habitat
groups which have long distinguished
the Museum’s exhibits. The original
idea as to subject was to select a typical
Pueblo village and then to reproduce as
far as possible a representative section
with the corresponding landscape.
In this case the choice of a type is not
difficult, for the principal surviving
villages, those of Hopi, Zui, Acoma,
Laguna and Isleta, while marked by
certain individualities are quite alike.
This is particularly true of their outward
or objective characteristics for they
are laid out on the same general plan
and show the same architectural lines.
Further, they are in the same kind of
country, the somewhat arid, sunny and
highly picturesque land of the South-
west. The people also, show many
similarities in dress and occupation and
are to-day living very much as did
their prehistoric ancestors. These vil-
lages are moreover of respectable anti-
quity, for several of them were described
by the first Spanish explorers (1539-40)
in terms that are recognizable to-day.
No doubt many of the same houses in
Acoma now, were standing when first
viewed by Coronado, Alvarado and their
followers, and no one knows for how
many centuries before. Thus the final
choice of a site for this group became
merely a practical question, the site
best adapted to the space and mechanical
limitations. To our mind, this was the
Hopi village of Walpi.
The administrative responsibility for
the group was accepted by Dr. Pliny E.
Goddard who commissioned the artist,
Howard McCormick, to design and exe-
cute it with the help of the sculptor,
Mahonri M. Young. When the design
had been approved by the Museum,
Messrs. McCormick and Young went to
Walpi where they spent a summer mak-
ing the necessary sketches, color studies
and figure modeling.
The near village in the canvas back-
ground is Walpi as seen from the south
while beyond in the distance is its
neighbor, Sichumovi. It may be noted
that the Hopi villages are in three groups
because they occupy three separate
stretches of elevated land, or mesas.
These mesas are designated as the first
or eastern, the second or middle, and
the third or western mesa. On the first
mesa are Walpi, Sichumovi and Hano,
Walpi occupying the southern end or
point.
To the left of Walpi on the canvas
appears the second mesa, where the
contour is broken by a cafion, through
which the lowering rays of the afternoon
sun stream in a striking way. To the
right are the lowlands in which the Hopi
fields are laid out, ‘the artist having
indicated the growing corn.
In the foreground is an outlying or
343
344
detached portion of Walpi cut off by a
small ravine. It is in this small de-
tached group of houses that the visitor
stands. He looks out across the roof
of the first tier of houses just as he would
from the doorway of a second tier house,
past an angling portion of the same tier
across the valley, or arroyo, into Walpi.
Immediately before him, as if he were
in their midst, are representative Hopi
people pursuing the routine of their daily
toil. Thus, in the group as a whole, we
get a veritable snapshot of Hopi life,
precisely what one might see in a glance
through a village. It was not designed
to force into the composition many
phases of life not usually seen in juxta-
position, but to present one of the com-
monest scenes of prosaic life. It was
not our aim to instruct the visitor in
details, such as how cloth is made, how
houses are built, the whole life history of
a clay pot from the grinding of the clay
to the firing, and the like — all subjects
far better treated in the exhibition cases
of the hall — but to give a concrete idea
of Hopi life in its native setting. Ina
way, the production is a human habitat
group, analogous to bird and mammal
habitat groups.
In composition the artists have pro-
jected the group as a whole. To this
end the objects in the foreground are
adjusted to the same perspective lines as
the canvas. Had the primary aim been
to show a Hopi house, it would have been
constructed on its own lines, but since
the purpose of this group was to show a
cross-section of Hopiland, the unity of
the whole was sought in one perspective.
This unity of perspective between the
foreground and the canvas is designed to
carry the eye over from the real objects
in the foreground to the canvas in the
distance, to the end that one may feel
the great open landscape of the Hopi
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Indian’s habitat. In this particular
the artists have been successful. The
specimens in the Hopi cases adjoining the
group and the illustrations in books give
a wealth of detail as to the multiplicity
of pueblo life, but they cannot in any-
way take the place of a visit to Walpi
where one may see things in their per-
spective and native color. The very
highest praise that could be bestowed
upon this group was a remark by a
visitor, “It is almost as good as a trip to
Hopiland.” This was the ideal of its
construction.
The success of this group has been
sufficient warrant for proceeding with a
second At the outset it was
planned to have three large Southwest-
ern groups to which the architecture of
the hall readily lends itself. In the
center where the Navajo hogan now
stands is to be one for the Navajo, show-
ing a typical habitation, a family at its
one.
daily routine, and the landscape setting;
while within the hogan, visible through
the open door, a ceremony with its
beautiful sand painting. On the left is
the Hopi group now in place and on the
right the Apache group now under
construction. Mr. McCormick has the
canvas background mounted and _al-
most entirely painted in. Work upon
the foreground and the reproduction
of an Apache grass-covered shelter are
under way. Mr. Young is now among
the Apache in New Mexico modeling
the human figures.
The general plan of the Apache group:
is the same as for the Hopi, a dwelling
with family group in the foreground
and the panorama of the landscape
beyond. A definite spot on one of the
Apache reservations was. chosen for
reproduction here so that the finished
group will present with fidelity a sample
of this tribe’s original habitat.
DETAIL OF THE HOPI GROUP
The young mother is rocking her baby by moving the primitive cradle with both feet and hands
The curtained door is an indication of a new-born infant within. The old manin the distance is spinning and
the man in the middle distance weaving. From the roof hang the dried red peppers so much prized by the
| Indians and Mexicans of the Southwest
9FE
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city
EARLIEST REPRESENTATION OF AN AMERICAN LANDSCAPE
Brazilian forest scene with red-and-yellow macaws, from the Cantino map of 1502. The original, beautifully
colored, is preserved in Modena. MHarrissi has published a facsimile reprint
348
ae
Ny neue
Sake mith
=
BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN
NATURAL HISTORY
By Charies R. Eastman
HE following notes concerning the
first mention in literature of
various American animals have
been suggested by the discussion which
has been running in Nature during the
past twelve-month concerning early ref-
erences to the opossum and kangaroo.
The article may serve as a sequel also
to one on “The Beaver Group”’ by Dr.
F. A. Lucas, in the JourRNAL of the
American Museum for March, 1913,
and to two or three that have appeared
in Science and Popular Science Monthly,
by Dr. E. W. Gudger, on early Brazilian
naturalists.
It is surprising how rapidly informa-
tion accumulated regarding the natural
history of the New World directly after
Columbus
voluminous writer, is proved by his
Journal and letters to have been a keen
its discovery. himself, a
observer of the strange aspects of nature
and man in the regions discovered by
him. To the Admiral we owe the first
account of the alligator, iguana, hutia,
manatee, native dog of the West Indies,
and numerous species of birds, trees and
The letter of Dr.
accompanied Columbus, and those of
Vespucci! are also full of interesting
plants. Chanea, who
natural history details.
1 Vespucci’s first letter (1497) was republished
in facsimile by Varnhagen in 1893, having for
frontispiece a design by Stradanus dating from
about 1580, in which various South American
animals are represented. Mention occurs in this
letter of the iguana, puma and ocelot from the
coast of Tampico. Dr. Chanca’s letter has re-
cently been translated and edited by Fernandez
de Ybarra, in Smithson. Misc. Coll., 1906, and
Journ. Amer. Med. Assoc. for same year.
Cut at the left above, macaw after pre-Colum-
bian Maya codex; at the right, Central American
parrot, as shown in Maya codex.
1504 there was published
in Venice a little collection? of voyages
entitled Libretio de tutia la Navigatione
As early as
de Re de Spagna, de la Isole et Terreni
Novamente Trovati. The matter in this
Libretto was taken over into the famous
Paesi Novamente Retrovati, a larger col-
lection edited by Fracanzio da Montal-
boddo, and printed in 1507, ’08, 713 and
"19. In the Libretto and also in this
second collection are found the first
printed description of the opossum.
The Oceani Decas (Decade of the
Ocean) of Peter Martyr was published
in 1511, and this and succeeding Decades
are enlivened by interesting digressions
on the natural history of the new conti-
nent. Here occurs the first mention in
literature of the potato and the earliest
recognizable description of the tapir.
This author’s statement that a live
opossum, captured with her litter by the
Pinzons in 1500, was exhibited in Gran-
ada, Spain, is confirmed by a Latin
inscription which accompanies a figure
intended to represent this animal in the
Waldseemiiller world-map of 1516, and
in three succeeding editions of Ptolemy’s
Geography.
A reproduction of a portion of the map
known as T'abula Terre Nove in the Ptol-
emy of 1522 showing this same figure and
a Brazilian cannibal scene, is given by
Edward Everett Hale in Winsor’s Narra-
tive and Critical History of
(vol. ii, p. 598). Gesner and Topsell
also take their illustrations of the so-
America
2 Peter Martyr is thought to have been the
author of the Latin original, and Angelo Trivi-
giano the translator and editor of this pioneer
work.
349
tha ex pus
ine
SSS te
Na vw
Si ys \\
ny rl
On the right, a Brazilian banquet; to the left, an opossum with brood-pouch.
[From Waldseemiiller world-map of 1516]
known figure of an American marsupial.
called Stmivulpa, in reality the opossum,
A I
In later South
American cartography, a figure of the
from the same source.
tapir, but with long, drooping ears, 1s
often substituted for that which does
service for the opossum, and in the Blaeu
map of 1605 the latter is introduced into
the region that is now known as Argen-
tina. In the same map a drawing of the
“Su,” originally placed in the region of
the La Plata, is shifted to the North
American continent, in Nova Francia.
The first illustration and description of
this fantastic creature, which is in reality
merely a caricature of the common opos-
sum, is found in the work published
Thevet 1558, entitled
Singularitéz de la France Antartique.
by André in
Thevet’s figure is copied by Conrad
Hvistoriae
(1620), both in the text and title-page.
Gesner in his Animalium
Gesner, Topsell and Jonston also copy
Thevet’s bizarre representation of the
three-toed sloth (Bradypus_ tridaciylus
Is)
In connection with the figures that are
350
pet hes prifikioamDis
Canclia fagires etre geors
NOVA
a i =
wy 3
Abe? ,
This is the earliest
”
here given of the “‘Simivulpa”’ and “Su,
(7. e., Didelphis), which are taken from
Thevet’s work of 1558, we may quote
Topsell’s descriptions of these creatures,
as given in the English Gesner (1658):
Of the Simivulpa, or Apish Fox.
Those which have travelled the Countrey
of Payran [Parana], do affirme, that they
have seen a four-footed beast, called in Latin,
Simivulpa, in Greek, Alopecopithecos, and in
German, Fuchssaffe: in the forepart like a
Fox, and in the hinder part like an Ape,
except that it had mans feet, and ears like a
Bat, and underneath the common belly,
there was a skin like a bag or scrip, wherein
she keepeth, lodgeth, and carryeth her young
ones, until they are able to provide for them-
selves, without the help of their dam; neither
do they come forth of that receptacle, except
it be to suck milk, or sport themselves, so
that the same under-belly is her best remedy
against the furious Hunters, and other raven-
ing beasts, to preserve her young ones, for she
is incredibly swift, running with that carriage
as if she had no burthen. It hath a tail like a
Munkey: there was one of them with three
young Whelpes taken and brought into a
ship, but the Whelps died quickly: the old
one living longer was brought to Szvill, and
BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY 301
afterward to Granado,
where the King of
Spain saw it, which
soon after by reason of
the change of aire and
incertainty of diet, did
also pine away and die.
The like things doth
Cardan report of a
beast called Chiurca, in
Hispania Nova, and
Stadinius of a Suruvoy
in America: but I con-
jecture that the former
is this Fox-Ape called
in Greek, Alopecopithe-
cos, and of the Ger-
mans Fuschsaffe, the
latter the Female Cy-
nocephal, which carry-
eth her womb wherein
lie her young ones with-
out her belly.”
ravenous beast.
Of a Wilde Beast
in the New-found
World called Su.
“There is a Region
in the New-found
World, called Gigantes,
and the Inhabitants
thereof are called Pan-
tagones; now because
their Countrey is cold,
being far in the South,
they clothe themselves
with the skins of a
Beast called in their
own tongue Su, for by
reason that this Beast
liveth for the most part
neer the waters, there-
fore they call it by the
name of Su, which sig-
nifieth water. The
true Image thereof as it was taken by Theve-
tus, I have here inserted, for it is of a very
deformed shape, and monstrous presence, a
great ravener and untamable wilde Beast.
When the Hunters that desire her skin set
upon her, she flyeth very swift, carrying her
young ones upon her back, and covering
them with her broad tail: now forsomuch as
no Dog or Man dareth to approach neer unto
her, (because such is the wrath thereof, that
Haut.”’
Opossum and family on the march.
called by Thevet and others the ‘‘Su,’’ and characterized as a ferocious and
[From Thevet’s ‘‘Singularitez,”’ 1558]
WEE
LL
Wt,
L.
~
This slender-waisted creature is
This amiable-looking creature (three-toed sloth) is called by Thevet ‘the
The human-like expression is not wholly imaginary, being some-
what characteristic of the young sloth.
(From Thevet, 1558)
in the pursuit she killeth a!l that cometh near
her:) the Hunters dig several pits or great
holes in the earth, which they cover with
boughs, sticks, and earth, so weakly that if
the Beast chance at any time to come upon it,
she and her young ones fall down into the pit
and are taken.
This cruel, untamable, impatient, violent,
ravening, and bloudy beast, perceiving that
her natural strength cannot deliver her from
302
the wit and policy of men her hunters, (for
being inclosed, she can never get out again,)
the Hunters being at hand to watch her down-
fall, and work her overthrow, first of all to
save her young ones from taking and taming,
she destroyeth them all with her own teeth;
for there was never any of them taken alive;
and when she seeth the Hunters come about
her, she roareth, cryeth, howleth, brayeth,
?
c= om
ZB =] Wiss
S ite. # Hl
A 7)
Above, the iguana; below, the manatee, or sea-cow.
ures are from Oviedo’s History of the Indies, 1535, and are the
earliest known representations of these animals
and uttereth such a fearfull, noysome and
terrible clamor, that the men which watch to
lall her, are not thereby a little amazed, but
at last being animated, because there can be
no resistance, they approach, and with their
darts and spears wound her to death, and then
take off her skin, and leave the careass in
the earth. And this is all that I finde re-
corded of this most savage Beast.”
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Peter Martyr, as already remarked,
gives the earliest and at the same time a
very satisfactory account of the tapir.
The next writer after the “Father of
American history,” as this author has
been called, to describe the tapir is the
bachiller Enciso, whose ‘Swma de Geo-
grafia’, was first published at Seville in
1519. In 1526 Gonzalo
— Fernandez de Oviedo pub-
lished the Sumario, or epit-
ome of his comprehensive
history, and in chapters
twelve and twenty-two of
H the shorter work are to be
found excellent descrip-
f] i]
& <j# tionsof the tapir and arma-
H dillo. Theearliest printed
YT / figure of the armadillo is
found in the Exoticorum of
Clusius or L’ Escluse (1605),
in which work are also
found figures, based upon
original observation, of the
manatee. De
Laet in his Novus Orbis
sloth and
(1633), and George Marc-
grav! in his justly famous
treatise on Brazilian natu-
ral history (1648), both
the
by Clusius of the rare
copy figure given
three-banded armadillo.
1There have been published,
by Martius and Lichtenstein,
excellent commentaries on the
plants and animals of Brazil
which were described by George
Marcgrav and Wilhelm Piso
under the editorship of De
Laet in 1648, and the same
service was performed by Lichtenstein for the
Mexican quadrupeds described by Francisco
Hernandez in the Latin edition of his Historie
Animalium published in 1628. (Abhandl. Akad.
Wiss. Berlin 1827, pp. 88-127. See also earlier
volumes for Maregrav). On Hernandez and his
works, see O. Rich, Books relating to America,
pp. 72-74, and Joseph Sabin, Bibliotheca Ameri-
cana, Vol. viii, pp. 239-241. The commentary by
Martius, the Munich botanist, is found in Ab-
handl. k. bayer. Akad., 1853, vol. vii.
Both fig-
BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY
Marcgrav, Nieremberg and Jonston also
copy Clusius’ somewhat fanciful repre-
sentation of the three-toed sloth, called
the Ignavus, Ai or Haut, and in Spanish
the perallo ligero.
The compendium of Oviedo, published
in 1526, was followed in 1535 by his
larger work, of which a modern reprint
exists, entitled Historia general de las
Indies. Another work having the same
title, by Francisco Lopez Gomara, was
first printed in 1553, and passed through
several editions. Both these works,
excellent in their way, contain much
the
aborigines, and animal and plant life of
the southern continent and the West
Indies. the
known figure of the buffalo, or American
bison, and Oviedo is the first author to
represent the iguana and manatee. Un-
der the native designation of “Anta,”
two Patagonian animals appear to have
been indicated by Gomara. One of them
is pretty certainly the guanaco, and the
other is conjecturally identified by M.
valuable information concerning
Gomara_ gives earliest
Roulin, in his Mémoire sur le Tapir
=
S&S
=
353
(1835), as the guemul or huemul deer.
Concerning the guanaco, this creature
was first seen by Magellan in 1519, in the
vicinity of the straits that bear his name.
The earliest mention of this animal, of
the rhea, penguin and fur seal as ob-
served in Patagonia, occurs in the narra-
tive of Antonio Pigafetta,! who accom-
panied the famous navigator on_ his
voyage around the world. It was near
the Straits of Magellan that the guemul
deer was first seen by Captain Wallis.
In early accounts this animal was con-
fused with a supposed equine species,
first scientifically described by Molina
under the name of Equus bisulcus, and
represented in the Chilean coat-of-arms
1Tt is there mentioned that the Patagonians,
whom the voyagers encountered at Port St. Julian,
were clothed with the ‘‘Skinne of a Beast sewed
together,’’ and that ‘‘This Beast (as it seemed
unto us) had a large head, and great eares like
unto a Mule, with the body of a Camell, and
tayle of a Horse.’’ In the relation of Olivier van
Noort’s voyage (1598), it is stated that at Port
Desire they ‘‘found Beasts like Stagges and
Buffals.’’ The first English navigator to take
detailed notice of this ruminant appears to have
been Wood, in the narrative of his Voyage through
the Straights of Magellan (1670).
SS
eee ec tee
This gayly caparisoned creature is meant by Aldrovandi (1637) to represent the nine-banded arma-
dillo.
Enciso described it a century earlier, and Bélon and L’Escluse gave good figures
ao4
The seal, somewhat conventionalized by Van Brussel, and passing under
the guise of ‘‘sea-lion’’ (1799)
as of equine shape.! It is interesting to
note that the figure of a horse is intro-
duced by Sebastian Cabot in the Argen-
tine region of his world-map of 1544, but
this can scarcely be construed as evidence
that native wild horses were seen by that
navigator anywhere in South America.
This view is, however, maintained by
Senior Anibal Cardoso in a recent memoir
in the Anales of the Buenos Aires Mu-
seum (vol. xv, 1912) on the origin of
Argentine horses.
In regard to the elephant-seal, Dr.
R. Lydekker is authority for the state-
ment that our first definite, if not actual,
_knowledge of this animal seems to have
been derived from a specimen brought to
England by Lord Anson in 1744 from the
island of Juan Fernandez; and also
from the figure and account given in
the Voyage Round the World of that
great commander, where the species
is called “sea-lyon.” It is, however,
certain that Dampier in 1684, and Peter
Kolben in 1705, also described the same
creature (Macrorhynchus leoninus U.).
The former writes:
1 The most recent notices of this large mammal,
Hippocamelus bisulcus, are those by J. A. Allen, in
the Report of the Princeton Patagonian Expedi-
tion (1906), and M. Neveu-Lamaire and G.
Grandidier, in Les mammiféres des hauts plateaux
de l’ Amérique du Sud (1911). Lydekker gives
a colored plate of the guemul in Proc. Zool. Soc.
London, 1899.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
The Sea Lion is
a large Creature
about 12 or 14 foot
long. The biggest
part of the Body is
as big as a Bull: It
is shaped like a Seal,
but 6 times as big.
The Head is like a
Lion’s Head; _ it
hath a broad Face
with many long
Hairs growing a-
bout its Lips like a
Cat. It hasa great
goggle Eye, the
Teeth 3 Inches long, about the bigness of a
Man’s Thumb....They have no Hair on
their Bodies like the Seal; they are of a dun
colour, and are all extraordinary fat.’”’—
Voyages, cap. iv. ,
Very important for the west coast of
South America is Cieza de Leon’s
Cronica del Perw (1553). The Amster-
dam edition of this work (1554) contains
a fair illustration of the llama, an animal
of the existence of which Europeans first
became aware as early as 1513, through
Balboa’s intercourse with the Aztec
chieftain Tumaco. Members of the
llama race, of edentates, and many
of the more characteristic Central and
South American birds, mammals and
even tropical vegetation, are represented
with considerable fidelity in early six-
teenth century cartography of the west-
ke
a he
MU
= ~
Not a griffin, but a harmless spotted dog, rep-
resented in pre-Columbian Maya codices
BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY
ern hemisphere. <A real service to science,
as well as to the study of history and geo-
graphy, has been rendered by Dr. E. L.
Stevenson, in his facsimile reprints of six-
teenth and seventeenth century world
maps published under the auspices of the
Hispanic Society of America.
It will suffice to mention at this point
the names of several authors who treated
more or less extensively the natural
history of the New World during the lat-
ter half of the sixteenth century. The
figures and descriptions of South Ameri-
can animals given by André Thevet in
his Singu-
laritéz de
la France
Antarctique
(1558), and
by Jean de
Lery, in
his Voyage
en ~—— Brazil
(1578), were
freely made
use of in a
number of
later
pilations,
one such be-
ing the His-
toria Na-
ture (1635)
of Juan E. Nieremberg, a Jesuit pro-
fessor at Madrid. Another was a His-
tory of the Indies, in Latin, published at
Florence in 1588 by the Jesuit Father
Giovanni Maffei, who had access to the
archives in Lisbon. Many interesting
notices are to be found in La Historia
del Mondo Nuovo (1565), by the Italian
traveler Girolamo Benzoni; also in the
com-
toucan, Rhamphastus.
collection of voyages and travels pub-
lished by Ramusio in 1556 and 1565,
and in the “ Observations”’ (1593) of the
famous English freebooter, Sir Richard
Hawkins. The following extract on the
Barring the feet, which are crow-like, not a bad idea of a Brazilian
(From Thevet’s ‘‘Singularitez,’’ 1558]
300
chinchilla may serve as a specimen of
Sir Richard’s natural history notes:
Amongst others [the Chileans] they have
little beastes like unto a squirrell, but that he
is gray; his skin is the most delicate soft and
curious furre that I have seene, and of much
estimation (as is of reason) in the Peru; few
of them come into Spaine because it is diffi-
cult to be come by; for that the princes and
nobles laie waite for them. They call this
beast chinchilla, and of them they have great
abundance.
More important from a scientific
standpoint and more trustworthy than
any of the minor writers just men-
tioned are
the works
of the two
Spanish
chroniclers
José de A-
costa and
Antonio de
Herrera,
who wrote
toward the
end of the
sixteenth
and begin-
ning of the
seventeenth
century re-
spectively.
The Jesuit
historian de Acosta (1590) would seem
to have been the first writer to notice
the chinchilla, and he refers particularly,
as do also Cieza de Leon and Garcilasso
de la Vega, to the bones of fossil mam-
mals found in the Campo de los Gigantes
(Savanna of Bogota). Similar remains
were also noted in Mexico by Francisco
Hernandez, whose Historie Animalium
(1628) remained for a long time in
manuscript before being finally edited
and published.
[Article to be concluded in December Journal]
IN THE METROPOLITAN
A GLIMPSE AT THE MARVELOUS ARMOR COLLECTION
MUSEUM OF ART
356
EVOLUTION OF ARMS AND ARMOR
By Bashford Dean
As is well known there is in progress a considerable agitation of the question of the use of armor
in the present European war. Many military experts advocate it, as well as armor experts such as
Dr. Bashford Dean. They have in mind of course the hand to hand conflicts of trench warfare and the
similar duel character of the fighting now going on in the Balkans. Dr. Dean considers it fair to believe
that suitable armor would save the lives of hundreds of soldiers and that a single soldier properly armored
would be the equal of many unarmored soldiers in trench warfare. He advises not only the shield,
headpiece and corselet suggested by Sir A. Conan Doyle, but also groin and hip plates to give additional
protection from schrapnel and spent balls. Any armor to be efficient against the high explosives of
to-day must be of hardened steel, smooth, highly polished and in form as roundly curved as possible.
Thus more frequently the bullet will glance off instead of penetrating. Dr. Dean’s article calls atten-
tion to the marvelous armor collection recently put on exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York City, which gives an opportunity for the study of armor historically, and for a compara-
tive study relative to the fitness of armor for practical service at the present time.— Tue Eprror.
66 APPY is the
Horace, “who can know the
We may
man,’ wrote
causes of things.”’
to-day differ as to how the word “happy”
is best defined, still we may each and all
agree that there is a wholesome satis-
faction in being able to apply widely
and practically some “causal”’ principle
of nature which we have discovered —
often at the cost of labor and suffering.
Let us take as an instance the principle
which we call evolution. The zodlogists
of the past half century have demon-
strated the great truth that the beings
of to-day have changed to a greater or
less degree from their ancestral form and
habit; and this “law” has already been
the means of revising helpfully many of
our ideas, not in biology alone but in
various lines of human thought and
enterprise, including science, theology
and art. Thus in science we may now
trace an evolution even of the solar
system, in theology we can work out
the genesis of a sect, and in art we are
given the means of explaining step by
step the development of an ornament
ora style. And it is extraordinary how
much Horatian satisfaction we get from
being able to explain the causes or origin
of things — even of everyday objects and
the least of them, such as the position
of buttons on our coat sleeve, or the
colored lights in an apothecary’s shop.
At first sight of course, one may say,
how may we justly apply to all of these
things the principle which prevails in
living creatures. Creatures, says one,
change because they vary in nature.
Two fishes are never quite alike, nor
even two peas in a pod, and in time these
variations become more pronounced for
some obscure cause or another, until
the descendant in the thousandth genera-
tion is quite unlike his forebear. But in
living beings the changes are genetic,
passed along from father to son. How
then may this principle be used to explain
the happenings of things which are not
kith or kin?
Truly this is a question not easy to
answer. In certain cases however, the
changes are all so clear that the objects
have only to be placed in line to show
that there has been happening a kind of
evolution. When we turn the matter
over in our minds we may explain the
evolutional side of it all by showing
that the things have developed because
of real evolutional changes which took
place in or were directed by neighboring
organized beings. For instance we could
certainly describe the evolution of the
stomach in the series of backboned
animals if we but knew what that organ
had produced, secreted or excreted, from
the beginning. Why therefore should
we be surprised if, when we collect things
357
308
which arise from the age-long operation
of brain and hand, we should find that
these products are, so to say, genetic,
and may be arranged in evolutional se-
ries? This is the thought, I believe,
which explains why we may group objects
in gradational lines which give us con-
siderable satisfaction. For everyone dis-
likes confusion, and no little confusion can
be dissipated by groupings of this kind.
If, then, we examine among ancient
arms a large collection of shafted weap-
ons, with all their curiously outlined hal-
berds and pikes, we find that they fall
readily into series. If the collection con-
tains specimens which date back through-
out a number of centuries it becomes
quite easy to arrange them in a “pedi-
gree.’ In this, scores of kinds of these
arms, which bristle at first sight in con-
fusing array, can be reduced to half a
dozen “types”? which are clearly “an-
cestral.” These picture in their earliest
forms agricultural implements, such as
axe, pruning-hook and scythe, suggesting
the times when common soldiers were
farmers and fought with whatever they
had at hand. In these early times the
only real pole-arm (7. e. both for hunting
and warfare) was a spear.
Out of these simple types (generalized
as we would call them in zoédlogy) arose
advancing series, with new structures ap-
pearing, culminating, disappearing, just
as they occur in the history of shells or
beasts. Note for example the advancing
evolution of such a structure as the beak
of a halberd. In the beginning it was
not a part of the halberd blade, but a
separate hook of metal, like the tongue
of a buckle, which encircled the wooden
handle of this arm. Then, too, in our
series we find decadent lines: 'Thus the
spontoons which sergeants carried in our
War of Independence (and which our
state law declares must still be carried!)
were nothing but degenerate survivors
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
of ox-tongue partisans; or the tiny gui-
sarmes and dwarfed halberds of the sev-
enteenth century were but the crudely
made followers of the magnificent and
serviceable arms of the preceding cen-
tury. In these three cases degeneration
was accompanied with reduction in size.
In another case however, decadence was
expressed in just the opposite way (as
sometimes happens in animals) as in the
doge’s ceremonial fauchard of 1650-1700,
a titanic arm, so large that it could
hardly be carried comfortably, let alone
be used —even when it was formed of’a
sheet of metal, instead of being a well-
modeled and functional blade. These
forms were “gerontic,”’ as a naturalist
would say.
It is interesting too, in such a series of
forms to see how a structure changed its
function and was thereby “stimulated”’
to great evolutional progress; just as
we know that such a condition causes
far-reaching effects in animals, as when a
protective scale begins to function as a
weapon, or a gill-cleft comes to help out
the ear. As an example of this, observe
the ancient spear with lappets at its
base, which originally served to keep a
wounded animal (or man) at a safe
distance, so that it could not “run up”
the spear. When these lappets were
found of use for inflicting additional
wounds they grew steadily in size (for
about two hundred years) and developed
all manner of unwholesome hooks and
prongs, and in the latest types (feather-
staves) could in fact be folded together
and concealed within the handle, which
thereupon masqueraded as a harmless
walking staff, until the owner, swinging
his “feather-staff,’ shot out again the
long sharp points. Another example of
change of function appears in the blade
of a halberd. This was originally ax-
shaped, with cutting margin long, heavy
and convex; such a margin then became
EVOLUTION OF ARMS AND ARMOR
steadily reduced in size during a couple
of centuries. About 1500 it became
uniformly concave and lost its chopping
function. It was then simply a double
beak which was used as a pick, or at
need served as a grappling hook when
lances were to be pulled down or when a
wall was to be clambered up.
Again, among our arms, highly special-
ized forms were common, just as we find
309
everywhere animals which were curiously
developed in certain directions, as when
their teeth were suited only for a special
kind of food. Such forms, we find too,
did not long survive, dying out just as
our specialized animals do, e. g. when
their particular kind of food gives out.
As an instance of this we may note the
billhooks which were common in Eng-
land in the fifteenth century. In their
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POLE ARMS
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR COMMONER FORMS
DURING THE CENTURIES
BASHFORD DEAN DIR
360
early form they were serviceable heavy
axes with a hook-shaped end and a stout
prong at the side. From this form were
developed shapes which were very long
and very narrow —the cutting blade
suggesting a surgical knife and the prong
at the side becoming a huge needle
twenty inches in length. Now it is
remarkable that this highly specialized
type was used only toward the close of
the Wars of the Roses when knights were
SPIDER
HELMET
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
armed “to the proof” with the most
complete and efficient armor which the
world has seen. Its plates could no
longer be crushed, hence the heavy ax-
head of our earlier pole-arm gave place
to the long-bladed incurved knife which
might be slipped neatly between the
plates, say of shoulder, knee or elbow,
and inflict a dangerous wound. So too
this specialized billhook lost its stout
beak or pick, for this could no longer be
eis. IRON HAT-LINING
PIKE MANS
POT
CREST —__
BOWL
(TIMBRE)
(BEVOR)
CHIN GUARD
THE PARTS OF A HELMET
HELMETS
THEIR KINDS AND DEVELOPMENT DURING
THE CENTURIES
600 AD.
--~ MORION:
CABASSET
ae CONICAL. OR NORMAN CASOUB
Zz 1000
a
Ss.
“aA SPANGENHELM
A.D. 600
EVOLUTION OF ARMS AND ARMOR
pounded through the plates of gothic
armor, but became long and slender,
needle-like in form. By such a point,
chain mail could be pierced, that is,
because of the length and shape of the
weapon it was best equipped mechani-
cally to break a single ring in the knight’s
collar of chain mail, which otherwise was
“proof.” The fact that this type of bill
did not long survive is_ interestingly
accounted for by the changes which soon
took place in knightly armor, for the
collar of mail was subordinated to plate,
and the huge elbow and knee pieces of
gothic armor, which were easily “caught”
by the incurved and inslipping blade,
appeared in use only for a few years.
If we study progressive changes in
helmets, again we see generalized forms
in the earliest times. Thus at the very
beginning, the helmet was built of many
pieces of iron and was a form much
easier to make than a casque beaten
out of a single piece of metal!'— the
latter type of headpiece appearing only
after armorers’ experiments had stretched
through several hundred years. In our
present series we see again highly special-
ized forms as in the terminal members of
the “lines”? of war hats (chapel-de-fer),
barbutes and fifteenth century heaumes.
In the first of these the brim of the hat
became so wide that the headpiece could
not be kept safely in place; in the second
the expense of making it was extreme
and it proved troublesome in the neck
region; in the third the weight and size
became excessive, and it disappeared
as speedily as a highly developed variety
in jousting went out of style.
An advancing line in an evolutional
series of helmets is seen in the closed
helmet, or armet, which arose from the
1JIn all these cases we leave out of account
armor and arms of Classical Antiquity: these
were, with so much else of early culture, lost from
the sight of the Middle Ages.
361
bowl-shaped helmet or salade and gave
rise to many kinds of burganets, morions
and cabassets. The evolutional fertil-
ity of the armet appears to have been
based upon several factors, such as the
close modeling of the helmet to the head,
enabling it to be kept readily in place,
with the that a
separate visor and a separate chinpiece
coupled invention
could be made to rotate from single
lateral pivots — the latter adjustment
of a great advantage since it made the
headpiece easy to put on and take off.
As a case of “ convergence,” or “ parallel-
b
ism’ in an evolutional series of helmets
we may mention the form of closed hel-
met called armet-d-rondelle which sug-
gests the usual armet but which was not
closely kin to it, and did not survive
because it lacked convenience in manipu-
lation. Thus in order to remove this
casque the visor had first to be raised,
then the cheek plates had to be separated
By
the time the wearer, cumbered with his
from a peg at the point of the chin.
mitten-shaped gauntlets succeeded in
detaching the cheek flaps below, he
might find that his visor would fall and
cause him annoying delay. Another
parallel to the closed helmet of the six-
teenth century was the basinet in the
late fourteenth century. It never led
directly to the armet however, and had
evident defects in its mechanism which
cause it to be ranked as a “terminal”’
rather than a progressive form.
In a series of helmets we have, again,
decadent or degenerate forms. Thus
in the line of closed helmets the latest
examples have lost their tall crests, their
modeling, the separate plates in the neck
region, even the catch which clamps the
chinpiece down (in the place of the last
we find merely a strap and a buckle).
Also in siege burganets one finds obvious
eases of degeneration: crest vanishes,
visor and umbrel disappear and their
362
ancient pivot is replaced by a simple
hinge. These casques are exceedingly
heavy and admirably designed to protect
the wearer from gunshot at close range.
They could be used in the trenches in
Flanders even to-day very much as they
were used in the days of Marlboro.
Their utility in fact is clearly shown in
the present revival of armor-wearing.
The helmets to be finally noted are nu-
merous degenerate and “rudimentary”
forms descended from the lobster-tailed
burganets of Cromwell’s times. Thus
the ear defense in such a headpiece loses
its lower portion, which was a part of the
neck guard, and later becomes greatly
reduced in size; also the neck-covering
portion of the back of the casque devel-
ops either a great number of strips,
or else, merging them all together,
becomes a single plate — which finally
may disappear altogether. Such a head-
piece had an interesting series of degen-
erate successors.— One of them is hat-
shaped, another becomes a_ skullcap
enclosed within the crown of a felt hat,
another persists as a lighter hat lining
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
made of a few wide bands of metal,
still another assumes the form of a grat-
ing made of light strips, and a final one
appears as a light hat lining made of a
few strips or bars of metal so hinged
together that the whole defense can be
folded and carried in one’s pocket.
It is especially significant in the vari-
ous instances noted above that the
changes always take place in order of
time, just as we find evolutional changes
occurring in animals. Thus we are no
more apt to meet the highly modified
burganets of the seventeenth century
among casques of the sixteenth century
than we are likely to find fossil mammals
in the old red sandstone. On the other
hand, we may learn of archaic forms of
helmets or halberds persisting for a long
time, as we find the pearly nautilus or the
gar pike, living to-day, which might well
have died out with their kindred ages
ago. Thus as an amusing case of sur-
vival, we read of knights from Ireland
appearing in Queen Elizabeth’s court
armed in basinets and chain mail, nearly
two centuries behind the English style.
TSIMSHIAN STORIES IN CARVED WOOD
By Lieutenant George T. Emmons
HE Kitksan as well as the other
| divisions of the Tsimshian pos-
sess neither letters nor hiero-
glyphics, yet through the plastic and
graphic arts they have been enabled to
preserve and illustrate their legends,
traditions and much of their life history.
Carving in wood, bone and _ stone,
weaving in the wool of the mountain
goat, in maple and cedar bark and spruce
root show a much higher degree of de-
velopment than painting. The last has
never advanced beyond simple outline
with no sense of perspective and with
four simple colors, consequently little
variation in shade or tone.
Cruder and more primitive than either
the Tsimshian proper or the Niska, the
Kitksan nevertheless follow natural
forms with wonderful accuracy, and
besides portraying the typical features
of their race, they express action in
animal figures — born no doubt of that
close study of nature upon which the
hunter’s life depends. Their art is more
realistic than conventional, but as it has
been developed slowly through genera-
tions a certain amount of usage prevails
which is the more noticeable in the hu-
man, bear and mythical animal figures.
Without discussing the origin of the
Kitksan, the fact that their art has been
borrowed from the coast cannot be ques-
tioned, for the reason that there are
found more than two hundred miles
inland in the midst of birch and cotton-
wood forests, sea animal forms emblem-
atic of the family crests that have come
to them through intercourse and inter-
marriage with the seaward divisions of
this people. Besides, all their folk-lore
and traditions speak of a migration
down the Skeena to salt water, and a
further proof is that the contiguous
Déné tribes are wholly wanting in any
sense of art.
Some of the finest specimens of carv-
ing are said to have been executed by
Tsimshian imported for the purpose, but
the average work represents home talent,
and while often archaic, is more realistic
and original and interesting in the por-
trayal of local traditions and the fauna
of the country than the finer carving.
At the village of the old Kitzegukla
on the Skeena River, some _ thirteen
miles below Hazelton, is a very interest-
ing heraldic column of the Kish-hasht
family. It is rather crude in its execu-
tion but’it illustrates more than the
usual number of stories. The tree is
simply barked and brought to a dull
point at the top. Below this occurs in
order representations of, first, the moun-
tain goat painted white and _ black;
second, the sun within which is the
figure of the moose hunter, Kuke-shan,
carrying a small basket; third, the
monkey woman Pighish, and at the base
the big horned owl (gwuk-gwu-nooks).
These stories told in wood go back to
the time when men and animals were
supposed to be very close to one another;
when they intermarried and saw each
other under a spell of witchery that made
all appear human, except that the ani-
mals wore coats of fur which they could
at will remove and appear in human
form, or put on and become as animals.
THE STORY OF THE MOUNTAIN GOAT
(These stories were told by John Malo, an old
Kitksan at Hazelton, June 20, 1913. They are
prosaic but typical native explanation of a totem
pole, similar to the many on exhibition in the
American Museum)
In the early days of life, before the great
cold which caused the dispersion of the
363
Four stories illustrated in carved wood on a heraldic column
Kitksan, when the whole tribe lived at Tumla-
halm on the upper Skeena River, there was
a great hunter, Kit-um-gieldo (man of the
outside or wilds). He was chief of the
Kon-nah-da clan, whose hunting grounds
included Sthe-yordan-lah (steep sides), the
precipitous aggregation of jagged mountain
peaks that rise directly from the compara-
364
MR ET OS
a bas a 28 ’ oe 5
tively level country beyond the
mouth of the Buckley River.
After the salmon season was
over, when the animals had
fattened on the abundance of
the summer and had taken on
their winter coats, he invited
the most active hunters of the
village to accompany him to
the great mountain where the
wild goats were abundant, for
besides the flesh which was
esteemed, the skins were used
as bedding, the soft wool was
twisted into yarn for weaving
blankets, into cord for carrying
bags and other household arti-
cles, while the leaf fat that had
been taken on as a protection
against the extreme cold of
winter was run into cakes for
later use.
The goats were hunted with
bow, arrow and spear, the hunt-
ers lying in wait for them along
their rock-worn trails, and
many were taken each year and
sent down the mountain side
to the people who were en-
camped awaiting the hunters’
return. Then the meat was
carried across the river to the
village and a great feast was
held.
During one of these expedi-
tions a young man put a bag
of red paint in his wallet, to
color his arrows for good luck,
and after he had killed many
goats he came across a kid
which he caught and after
painting its horns red and deco-
rating its face in ceremonial
design, he let it go. The fol-
lowing spring two strangers
dressed in white blankets ar-
rived in the village and as was
the custom with guests, they
were invited to the chief’s house and offered
food such as dried salmon, boiled dried goats’
meat and dried berries, but they would not
eat anything. They gave all the people an
invitation to visit their village, not saying
where it was, but offering themselves as
guides. After leaving the house some chil-
dren noticed the strangers on their hands and
TSIMSHIAN STORIES IN CARVED WOOD 365
knees eating grass like animals, but they did
not mention this to the people at the time.
The following morning at an early hour
the villagers assembled and led by the visi-
tors, crossed the river and climbed the moun-
tain until they reached what appeared to be a
broad level expanse where stood a large feast
house. This was a delusion, however, they
were really on a narrow rock shelf — for the
people were under the spell of the mountain.
Around the house were platforms of broad
planks which overhung steep precipices, and
their hosts who appeared as human beings
in their white blankets were in reality moun-
tain goats.
The people were feasted and then the chief,
their host, began to dance, singing a strange
song of his people: ‘“‘I am shaking my hoofs
over the mountain side,” and they saw the
rock open and close again, which they could
not understand.
When night came they were given sleeping
places on the platforms around the house,
the chiefs on the lower ones and the common
people on those above. The hosts, however,
took their places on the inner sides and
placed the guests on the outer edges, except
in the case of the hunter who the previous
year had caught the kid and painted its horns
red. To him came a young man whose face
was decorated in red, who asked him to share
his sleeping bench with him, and he alone was
placed on the inner side of the platform.
In the night when all were sleeping, the
goat hosts pushed the sleepers off into space
and all were killed except the young hunter
who had painted the horns of the kid, who
in truth was his host and protector in
human form.
When he awoke and found his friends gone
he was very sad, for he saw that he was on a
narrow rock shelf of the mountain side in a
place inaccessible to man. But his protector
took off his shoes which seemed to be hoofs
and putting them on the hunter’s feet he told
him that with them he need have no fear,
that he could jump from shelf to shelf with
perfect safety. Also he told him to take them
off when he reached the level ground and put
them in a certain place where he could find
them.
When the young hunter reached the base
of the mountain he found the bruised dead
bodies of all who had accompanied him to
the feast and only those were left who had
remained in the village.
THE STORY OF THE MOOSE HUNTER
The great moose hunter, MKuke-shan
(expert in gambling with the sticks) traveled
great distances in search of game but after
hunting a moose and killing it, he took only
the paunch which he filled with blood. This
he boiled down into a thick soup which was
considered a great luxury.
He was continually thirsty because he
traveled far and fast and he cautioned his
wife always to have water haskets filled when
he was expected to return — and these he
emptied at once.
During one of his trips the wife neglected
to go for water, and when he was returning
she heard him shouting for water. In her
confusion she answered ‘‘No water!’’ as she
grabbed the baskets and hurried to the
spring. Then he was carried up to the Sun
and his voice grew fainter and fainter until.
it was lost in the distance, for he was a child
of the Sun and was always thirsty, and he
could live on earth only as long as he could
find plenty of water. He can be seen in the
Sun, but no one must look at him because he
may throw down blood from the paunch
which he carries, and thus cause hemorrhage
and fatal sickness.
THE MONKEY WOMAN, PIGHISH
Besides having a knowledge of the
animals common to the country, the
Kitksan held a general belief in mythical
beings half human and half animal that
lived in the depth of the forest, the
inaccessible mountain tops and _ the
waters. Such beings had been seen in
early days by certain individuals, and
in most instances the meetings had been
productive of great good fortune. Rep-
resentations of these beings had been
assumed as crests and their supposed
likenesses were displayed on heraldic col-
umns, as well as upon ceremonial dress
and paraphernalia.
Pighish, who was seen first by one of the
Kish-hasht clan, was an animal closely asso-
ciated with the land ‘otter, although very
human in appearance, and spoken of -to-day
as a monkey woman. The presence of
Pighish was indicated by the cry of a child,
366
for she always carried on her back ‘a small
being much like herself.
Only one without fault could see this
miraculous creature, and when the voice
called, he was obliged to follow as the sun
goes around four times; then he would come
to Pighish. He then must take the child,
which immediately appeared to be human.
The mother then pleaded for her infant and
it was returned to her, whereupon she agreed
to grant any wish asked. In returning the
child, the face of the person had to be turned
away as he stepped back, lest Pighish kill
him with her long claws.
This spirit is identical with the property
women of the Haida and the Tlingit of the
Coast.
AN OLD LEGEND OF THE GREAT HORNED
OWL
There are many stories about the
great horned owl (gwuk-gwu-nooks) but
the one mentioned most often is in
connection with the theft of children.
One of the oldest of these legends, like
that of the mountain goat, goes back to
the days of Tumla-halm.
During the winter season of extreme cold
when the great communal houses were
untenantable, the people occupied very small
log structures — low, shedlike and chinked
with moss.
In one of these was a family including a
little boy who cried continually. He was
wrapped up in his rabbit-skin blanket and
put to bed, but he would get up and crying
go to one and another until the father said
“Tf you do not stop the owl will take you.”
Finally he went to the grandmother sleeping
near the door, and when she pushed him
away, the door opened and in truth the owl
came in and carried him off.
In the morning his family missed him, but
they could hear his faint crying, so they
searched far and wide but without any
success. Then they commenced digging in
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
the ground, and from this incident the col-
lection of winter huts below the main village
received the name “An wurghash”’ (place
where they dig). Finally the father took
down his bow and quiver and putting some
goat’s suet and red ochre in his bag, he set
out through the woods. He had gone but a
short distance when a grouse flew up from
the trail and lit in a tree. Fitting an arrow
to the bow the father was about to shoot,
when the grouse cried, ‘‘Do not shoot for I
will tell you of your lost boy, but first say if
you have any goat’s fat and red paint in your
wallet and will you paint red on my eyes?”
This he did and the grouse said, ‘‘ How nice I
look now! Go right ahead and you will see
a big nest of twigs in a great spruce and in it
is your boy.” The father reached the tree
and climbing up found the boy asleep
wrapped in his rabbit-skin blanket. This
was the owl’s nest, and the owl had been feed-
ing the child on live snakes, frogs and worms,
telling him they were rabbits’ entrails. These
ate through the child’s stomach and he finally
died and his body was burned.
In the fall of the year when the water was
low and the barricade and salmon traps
bridged the river, the villagers heard someone
calling from the opposite shore, and soon they
saw the owl which appeared more like an old
woman. As she came to the bridge, she
sang, ‘“‘Was it you that raised the child and
took it away?’’ The father told some little
boys playing about to pull out some of the
foot boards and place dead sticks across so
that any weight would break through. After
doing this they called to the owl to come over
knowing that she would press hard on the
foot boards, and as she attempted to cross
she broke through and fell into the river.
As she floated downstream she came to a
camping-place where children were hooking
salmon. When they saw her they brought
her to shore, but soon being frightened they
ran away. Then she called, ‘““Come back
my grandchildren and dry me.” They built
a fire and wiped her feathers dry, when she
became very vulgar in speech and they
angrily threw her into the river and she was
drowned.
EXPLORING A SPUR OF THE ANDES
By Leo E. Miller
HAT lofty spur of the Andes jutting
out of the Western Range slightly
below altitude 7° is known by the
name Paramillo. To explore this
section was the object of the expedition’s
leaving its base at Medellin on January 14,
1915, with equipment sufficient for about
three weeks’ actual field work.
The very good trail strikes toward the
northwest, ascending the mountain side
rapidly, so that four hours after starting we
had reached the top of the range. A great
cleft forms a natural pass, 8750 feet high,
and saves a climb of at least an additional
thousand feet. The slope on the other
(western) side is more gentle.
We were immediately impressed with the
barren nature of the country, for with the
exception of a few patches of low brush and
the clumps of withered grass, no vegetation
was to be seen; and an occasional glimpse of
the Cauca River far below suggested the
picture of a broad yellow ribbon lying upon a
brown rocky plain.
That night we reached a small town called
San Geronimo (elevation 3200 feet). Near
the town small patches of ground are irrigated
with water brought from mountain brooks and
distributed through a network of artificial
ditches. In these spots rice, corn and pastur-
age grow, although rather scantily on account
of the rocky nature of the soil.
Next morning we were on the road _ before
six. A few hours later, on crossing the top of a
small ridge, we came suddenly upon the town
of Sopetrin completely hidden in a fertile
little valley filled with palms, mangoes, and
other beautiful trees. The cluster of some
hundreds of neat white houses with red tile
roofs, the well-kept streets, and the multitude
of birds fluttering among the deep green foli-
age render Sopetran quite the most attrac-
tive town of its size I have seen in tropical
America.
At noon we reached the Cauca and crossed
that sluggish, muddy stream on a well-built
suspension bridge probably eight hundred feet
long. Gravel banks flank the sides of the
river, and bare sandy islands divide its waters.
The elevation at this point is approximately
two thousand feet. One league beyond the
Cauca lies the town of Antioquia, altitude
2600 feet. The valley of the Cauca is here
five to ten miles wide, rolling, and supports
no vegetation except occasional clumps of
mimosas and cacti which rather add to its
desert-like appearance. The high ranges of
the Western and Central Andes hem it in
like huge walls of pink clay and sandstone.
We reached Buritica January 16. Immedi-
ately after leaving Antioquia, a mere ledge
of a trail begins the ascent of the Coast Range,
and while a good deal of anxiety was felt for
the safety of the two cargo animals, it was
nevertheless a relief to escape from the intol-
erable heat of the low country. The altitude
of Buritica is 6200 feet.
On account of the jaded condition of the
animals, we spent the morning of January 17
at Buriticd. Leaving at noon, we reached
a small settlement known as Tabocal, altitude
5400 feet, at five o’clock. We could now no
longer see the Cauca, our view having been
shut off by a ridge of mountains several
thousand feet in height which rises out of the
valley between the ridge we were on and the
river. A slight change was perceptible in the
character of the country; extensive acres
covered with low brush dotted the otherwise
barren landscape, although far apart; and
on the extreme tops of both ranges a thin
fringe of green could be distinctly seen.
Beyond Tabocal the country is extremely
broken, there being frequent rises and de-
scents of two thousand feet. Several sepa-
rate mountains, not connected with the main
ranges, stand here and there like huge
monuments, rising from a basal elevation of
three thousand feet to eight or nine thousand
feet, which naturally magnifies their already
tremendous proportions.
Late in the afternoon of the eighteenth, we
reached an altitude of eight thousand feet, and
entered a fine strip of forest, the first we had
seen since leaving Medellin. This is the
beginning of the forested zone, which exami-
nation showed to be at an equal height on
both the Central and Coast Ranges, and to
continue to the tops, which appear to rise to
an altitude of nine thousand feet or more.
The night was spent at an Indian hut called
La Meseta, altitude 7900 feet just below the
forest belt, and situated in the midst of an
extensive strip of maize. Peque, the end of the
367
At one time on the way to the Paramillo, camp was made at an altitude of 10,000 feet after a climb
of 5000 feet in eight hours.
journey by mule, was reached at noon on the
nineteenth. After leaving La Meseta the trail
goes down abruptly; the town has an altitude
of only five thousand feet. Peque boasts of
about fifty decaying mud huts, and its popu-
lation is mostly of Indian descent, including
some pure-blooded Indians. One of the lat-
ter, Julian David, received us most cordially
and rendered us every possible assistance in
securing the porters for the ascent of the
Paramillo.
Some of the country surrounding Peque
once doubtless bore a light forest growth,
with heavier forest in the ravines; but by far
the greater part is naturally bare or covered
with a dense growth of brush. I was told
that at the time of the Spanish Invasion,
forty thousand Indians inhabited this region;
and as the several mountain streams supply
an abundance of fresh water and its soil
responds fairly well to cultivation, there seems
to be no reason why it should not have sup-
ported an extensive population.
The forest zone, beginning at La Meseta
at eight thousand feet, gradually extends its
limits downward as we go farther north, until
at Peque it reached as low as five thousand
feet in the deeper and well-watered ravines;
and as previously reported, at Puerto Val-
divia, it reaches the very edge of the Cauca.
We secured four half-breed porters to carry
the equipment and as there was no trail to the
Paramillo, a fifth man was engaged to go in
advance and clear an opening with his machete.
On the twenty-first we started at six in the
morning, following a short trail that led to a
368
After leaving this camp the expedition was without water for two days
lonely hut known as El Madeiro. This three
hours’ walk took us through country covered
with large areas of tall brush, blackberry
briars and guavas, with occasional patches
of forest, some of which had recently been
burnt.
Arriving at El Madeiro (eight thousand
feet), we plunged into the magnificent forest,
going in a due westerly direction. It was our
plan to follow along the top of an undulating
ridge, which one of the men said was the short-
est and easiest route. He knew from experi-
ence, having once visited that region some
sixteen years before. It was during the course
of arevolution; his father was pursued by the
opposing forces and fled into the forest, taking
his son, then a small boy with him, and even-
tually reaching the Paramillo where they
spent some time.
At first the forest was fairly penetrable,
but soon it assumed the character of the well-
known San Antonio (above Cali) jungle,
being composed of a solid wall of moss, ferns,
creepers and epiphytes which burdened every
tree-trunk and branch. Many birds, such as
wood-hewers, yellow-headed tanagers, par-
rots and blue-throated jays were observed,
among them a number of species common at
Santa Elena.
On account of the long climb, we made
camp at three o’clock, at an altitude of ten
thousand feet, having ascended five thousand
feet in eight hours’ marching. Water was
obtained in a ravine over one thousand feet
lower down on one side of the ridge, and I may
here add that this was the only water we had
until reaching the Paramillo, so that we went
nearly two whole days without drinking.
The second day’s march we had hoped
would be over a gentler slope; but it was soon
discovered that our ridge was composed of a
succession of knolls rising from five hundred
to one thousand feet above the mean level,
and the forest grew denser constantly. We
had to cut practically every foot of the way.
In places we actually walked over the top of
the masses of vegetation; the branches were a
solid tangle of creepers, climbing bamboo,
bromelias and mosses, and formed springy
aérial bridges. More often it was easier to
burrow through, and frequently ‘“‘tunnels”’
many yards long were cut, through which the
carriers crawled on hands and knees. The
tops of some of the hills were void of trees,
their place being taken by a dense growth of
grasslike bamboo, wild oleanders, thick-leaved
shrubs, and thickets of a tall, coarse grass
with leaves eight feet tall and six inches wide.
Half-breed porters to carry the expedition’s equipment. It was the duty of one to goin advance
and clear an opening through the forest with his machete.
In some places every foot of the way had
to be cut; in others the party actually walked over the tops of the vegetation, a solid tangle of creepers,
climbing bamboo, bromelias and mosses, which formed springy aérial bridges
369
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EXPLORING A SPUR OF THE ANDES ail
We camped this night at 11,350 feet up. The
men eagerly cut down clumps of bromelias
hoping to obtain water, but all that the leaves
contained were a few drops of a liquid mud,
utterly unfit for use. Although we traveled
steadily for ten hours, I doubt if we covered
more than three miles.
A few hours after starting on the morning
of January 23, we emerged suddenly from the
dark forest. Instead of the tall, overburdened
trees, there were extensive areas of bushes,
evergreens, stunted pines, and plants with
thick, round rubbery leaves, interspersed
with clumps of tall rank ferns. Beyond
stretched the bleak, wind-swept surface of
the Garam.
The Paramillo region is composed of a series
of sharply inclined peaks, the highest of which
attains an elevation of thirteen thousand feet,
interspersed with ravines and deep fissures.
The surface consists mainly of dark sandstone
which in many places has been shattered so
that a thin litter of the particles covers the
fundamental rock. Occasionally a thin vein
of white quartz crops out, especially where,
as often occurs, the strata stand in a perpen-
dicular position. Water is scarce. We dis-
covered but one *small, { trickling brooklet;
but at the bottom of one of the crevices
several potholes were found, each containing
several hundred gallons.
At night the temperature fell to 28°, and ice
formed in our pails half an inch thick; in
the morning the ground was white with frost.
The vegetation is of a typical paramo char-
acter, consisting of low clumps of frailejones,
blueberry bushes and tough grass. In the
ravines grow thick bushes and stunted trees,
all heavily moss-covered.
Birds were extremely scarce and, strange
to say, exceedingly wary. The typical slaty
finch of Santa Isabel and two species of
honey creepers were by far the commonest,
followed by a small, slaty tapacolo. Then
there were white-throated hummers and
flycatchers. The finches (including gold-
finches), honey creepers, tapacolos, cotingas
and flyeatchers, seem to belong strictly to the
paramo; the hummers, towhees and tanagers
it seems come only from the forests below.
It is difficult to guess just where this typical
paramo bird fauna originated. On all sides
excepting a break toward the west, Paramillo
is surrounded by ridges, some reaching an
elevation of 12,000 feet, the tops of which
are covered with dense forest, so that it
stands like a mountainous brown island amid
the sea of green.
MUSEUM NOTES
Stnce the last issue of the JouRNAL the
following persons have become members of
the Museum:
Patron, Mr. Jonn H. PRENTICE;
Life members, Mrs. ApriaAN HorrmMan
JoLInE, Mrs. Joon Maacer, Dr. J. V.
LAUDERDALE and Messrs. Gerorce OD.
Barron, Russett J. Cores, Atrrep M.
Couurns, Lez Garnetr Day, JoHn W.
Mercer and R. G. Packarp, JR.;
Sustaining member, Mrs. N. M. Ponp;
Annual members, Mrs. W. H. Burton,
Mrs. E. Brunswick, Mrs. Lintian M.
CuHarues, Mrs. K. D. CHeney, Jr., Mrs.
CHARLES Dovuauass, Mrs. JosepH HErziIG,
Mrs. Grorce Leary, Mrs. JoserH LoEewt,
Mrs. Wiuur1am MircHett, Mrs. C. W.
Pierson, Mrs. Horace F. Poor, Mrs.
ELEANOR ATKINSON Reap, Mrs. GEeorGE S.
Rinc, Mrs. Howarp C. Smits, Misses
ConsTANCE Griaes and ANNA L. SLATER,
Dr. José D. Atronseca, Dr. Grorce H.
SEMKEN, Dr. Jutes A. VuILLEUMIER, Dr.
B. W. WEINBERGER and Messrs. JOHN
AITKEN, ALBERT B. AsHFoRTH, FREDERIC D.
Barstow, Henry G. Bartou, Paut Baum-
GARTEN, RicHarD A. CARDEN, ALBERT HeEy-
MANN, GEORGE S. Hoyt, VINCENT LOESER,
M. R. Mayer, Painre AiInswortH Means,
CarL ScHurz PretTrascH, Henry M. Rau,
Max ROSENBERG, CHARLES SALOMON,
Francis UpHaM STEARNS, S. H. Stone,
C. J. Sruspner, LamMBert Suypam. ZJr.,
HERBERT SyreTT, Harry Tipper and a
membership in memoriam to Mr. AnprR& C.
CHAMPOLLION.
In accordance with resolutions taken by
the First Pan-American Scientific Congress,
meeting in 1908 at Santiago, Chile, a Second
Pan-American Congress will be held in Wash-
ington, D. C., in December, 1915, under the
auspices of the United States Government.
Through the courtesy of the Pan-American
Union the offices and sessions of the Congress
will be located in the Pan-American building
and the Director-General of this organization
will act as Secretary-General of the Congress.
The purpose of the Congress is to foster the
cordial relations existing between Pan-Ameri-
can countries and to give a broader acquaint-
ance with current progress in education,
public health, international law, antiquity of
man, conservation of natural resources and
bl2
all branches of scientific research. At the
recent invitation of the Secretary-General,
the American Museum appointed as official
representatives, Dr. Frank M. Chapman,
delegate and Dr. Herbert J. Spinden, alter-
nate.
THE one hundred and third meeting of the
National Academy of Sciences of the United
States of America will be held in New York
City, at the American Museum of Natural
History for three days in November begin-
ning the fifteenth.
On Monday, the first day, a lecture will
be given in the auditorium by Dr. Michael
Idvorsky Pupin, of Columbia University, on
“The Problem of Aérial Transmission,” to
be followed by a general reception in the hall
of the Age of Man. On Tuesday morning,
Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning,
public scientific sessions will be held in the
west assembly hall of the Museum at which
various short papers will be read. Among
those scheduled are: — ‘‘The Nature of Cell
Polarity,’ by Prof. Edwin G. Conklin of
Princeton University; ‘‘ Heredity of Stature,”
by Dr. Chas. B. Davenport of the Carnegie
Institute, Cold Spring Harbor, New York;
“Origin of the Gall Midges,”’ by Prof. E. P.
Felt of the Geological Hall, Albany; ‘Fossil
Caleareous Alge from the Panama Canal
Zone,’ by Prof. Marshall A. Howe ot the
New York Botanical Garden; ‘Recent Ex-
plorations in the Cactus Deserts of South
America,” by Dr. J. N. Rose of the Smith-
sonian Institution; ‘Can we observe Organic
Evolution in Progress?” by Dr. Herbert
Spencer Jennings of John Hopkins Univer-
sity; “A Suggested Explanation of Ortho-
genesis in Plants,’ by Prof. John M. Coulter
of the University of Chicago; “The Life of
Radium,” by Dr. Bertram B. Boltwood of
Yale; “The Colorimeter as an Interpreter
of Life Processes,” by Prof. Graham Lusk of
the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology;
“The Solar Radiation and its Variability,”
by Charles G. Abbot of the Smithsonian
Astrophysics Observatory; ‘Interference of
Light Waves of Slightly Different Length,”’
by Prof. Carl Barus of Brown University;
“The Influence of Certain Minerals on the
Development of Schists and Gneisses,”’ by
Dr. Charles R. Leith of Wisconsin Univer-
sity; “Glacial Sculpture of the Mission
MUSEUM NOTES
Range, Montana,’”’ by Prof. W. M. Davis of
Harvard; “Crystallization of Quartz Veins,”
by Waldemar Lindgren of the United States
Geological Survey.
President Henry Fairfield Osborn of the
American Museum, will speak on ‘‘The re-
cently mounted skeletons of Tyrannosaurus
and Ornithomimus in the American Museum
of Natural History.”” He will describe the
two extremes of carnivorous dinosaur adap-
tation which these specimens respectively
represent. Dr. Frank M. Chapman, curator
of ornithology at the American Museum, will
read a paper on “The Distribution of Bird
Life in Colombia: a Contribution to a
Biological Survey of South America,” and
Mr. C. William Beebe, curator of birds, New
York Zodlogical Park, on “The Origin of
Flight in Birds.”
Since Mr. Donald B. Macmillan has not
returned from the Arctic in time to present
to the members this fall an account of the
Crocker Land expedition which he led North
in 1913, arrangements have been made to
show to members of the Museum on the
evening of December 9 the motion pictures
secured by Sir Douglas Mawson on the
Australasian-Antaretic expedition. <A_ brief
account of the expedition and a description
of the action of the films, will be given by
Mr. George H. Sherwood, curator of educa-
tion at the American Museum of Natural
History. These films give a wonderful pic-
ture of the coastal animal life of the Ant-
arctic: penguins, seals, sea-elephants, sea-
leopards, snow petrels, cormorants, giant
petrels and many other little-known species
in apparently limitless number. The violent
windstorms and blizzards so common in the
Antarctic, and the giant icebergs and tower-
ing ice cliffs of that region are strikingly
shown in the pictures.
A RESTORATION of the dodo has been pre-
sented to the Museum by Walter Winans, of
Surrenden Park, England, and is now on exhi-
bition in the bird hall of the second floor. It
has been suggested that this bird should prop-
erly find a place in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, among the representations of figures
of ancient mythology; but although there ap-
pertains to the restoration no actual relic of
any dodo, it is not a work of imagination only,
having been prepared in the taxidermy studio
of Rowland Ward in London, from existing
373
paintings of an actual dodo, the skull and legs
of the restoration being cast from relics in the
British and Oxford museums. The accuracy
of the representation of the dodo presented
by Mr. Winans is vouched for by Ogilvie
Grant of the Zodlogical Society of London.
Art a recent meeting of the Executive Com-
mittee of the American Museum the new posi-
tion of research associate was created on the
scientific staff of the institution. Dr. C. R.
Eastman was appointed research associate in
vertebrate paleontology, and Mr. M. C. D.
Crawford, research associate in textiles.
Tue Board of Supervisors of the County
of Los Angeles has acknowledged the receipt
from the American Museum of a gift of casts
of Charles R. Knight’s restorations of the
imperial mammoth, the northern mammoth
and the American mastodon. These casts
have been placed in the Museum of History,
Science and Art of Los Angeles, associated
with the skeletons of these animals found in
the La Brea asphalt beds.
Tue American Museum has recently pur-
chased a fine mastodon skull found on the
farm of Mrs. V. Frye at Fulton, Indiana.
With it were another incomplete skull, two
lower jaws, and a considerable part of a
skeleton. Both skulls are of females, dis-
tinguished by small size and short and
slender tusks. The three fine specimens of
Mastodon americanus in the Quaternary hall,
the Warren skeleton, the Shawangunk skull
and the Ashley skull are all males. The new
acquisition enables us to compare male and
female skulls in the mastodon as well as in
the mammoth, in which there was a similar
difference in size of tusks. These tusks,
about three feet long and three inches in
diameter, are well worn at the tips, and
would seem to have been much more useful
weapons or tools than the huge tusks of the
male mastodon. One can scarcely avoid the
conclusion that the massive tusks of the
males were chiefly ornamental and of very
little service to their owners — detrimental
indeed rather than useful in fighting, in
digging, or in traveling through woods or
brushland. These and various other speci-
mens of the mastodon ‘and its Tertiary an-
cestors will shortly be arranged in the
northwest corner of the Quaternary hall on
the fourth floor of the Museum,
374
Ar a meeting of the Section of Biology of
the New York Academy of Sciences in the
American Museum on October 11, Dr. A. J.
Goldfarb, of the College of the City of New
York demonstrated his theory of the physio-
chemical origin of certain abnormal forms.
Dr. Goldfarb showed on the screen his pro-
duction of double sea-urchin embryos by
placing their eggs in certain chemical solu-
. tions, which dissolved the fertilization mem-
brane and permitted the eggs to adhere to
one another. His experiments would indi-
cate that metabolic derangements may be the
cause of the occurrence of similar abnormal-
ities in higher species. He found that the
extent of the derangements following partial
or complete fusion of eggs was roughly pro-
portional to the area of the surfaces brought
into contact.
In the death of Dr. Charles F. Holder, in
Pasadena, California, on October 11, this
country loses one of its older marine natural-
ists. Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, August
5, 1851, he early evinced an interest in
natural history, and in 1871 was appointed
assistant curator at the American Museum of
Natural History, to assist his father, who had
been associated with the Museum since its
inception. Dr. Holder in speaking of his
work there said a few years ago: ‘‘I remember
the opening of the Museum distinctly. I
had been on the Florida reefs with my father
for years, and had a practical knowledge of
marine zodlogy which had whetted my appe-
tite for science, and the gradual unfolding of
the collections was a delight.” Dr. Holder
resigned his position in the Museum in 1875
and soon afterward accepted the chair of
zoology at Throop College, Pasadena. At
the time of his death he was honorary curator
of its museum. Dr. Holder was the author
of many books and a member of many dis-
tinguished scientific societies.
Tue annual Autumn show of the Horti-
cultural Society of New York was held in
the American Museum of Natural History
November 4 to 7 inclusive. Chrysanthe-
mums were the feature of the exhibition and
among them the enormous bush plants shown
by Mr. Adolph Lewisohn of Ardsley, New
York, made a striking appearance. One of
these, a yellow R. F. Felton seventeen feet in
diameter and with fifteen hundred blooms, is
the largest ever grown.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Mr. Grorce C. Loncury has presented to
the Museum the collections of his last winter’s
archeological work on the Island of Jamaica.
They contain two human skulls from lime-
stone caves, and a large number of stone
celts, potsherds, and bird, fish, and animal
bones. This gift has been added to the very
large collection previously presented by Mr.
Longley, and will be found on exhibition in
the South American gallery.
THE collection of fossil mammals, obtained
in Alberta by Mr. Barnum Brown, associate
curator of vertebrate paleontology at the
American Museum, was shipped from Sweet-
grass, Montana, on October 27 and is expected
to reach New York in November.
A Mortorr skull, recently purchased by
the Museum, has just arrived from Australia.
The Morioris are an aboriginal race from the
Chatham Islands, and are spoken of as an-
cestors of the Maoris.
Miss Mary Cyntruta DiIcKkERSON, curator
of woods and forestry and associate curator
of herpetology at the American Museum,
attended the celebration of the fiftieth
anniversary of the opening of Vassar College
as the delegate of the Museum. The in-
auguration of Henry Noble MacCracken,
Ph.D., L. H. D., as President of the College
was the occasion for notable addresses by
Dr. John Huston Finley, commissioner of
education for New York, Dr. George Lyman
Kittredge, of Harvard University and Presi-
dent Henry Noble MacCracken. The Pag-
eant of Athena, composed by students of the
College and presented under the direction of
Miss Hazel Mackaye in Vassar’s new out-of-
door theatre, represented a very high stand-
ard of achievement. A series of moving
tableaux pictured phases of the development
of woman’s intellectual life in the past, “‘the
web of Athena’s weaving,” from Sappho in the
sixth century before Christ to Eleva Lucrezia
Cornaro of the seventeenth century after
Christ, who was elected to the doctorate of the
University of Padua. At the close, after the
procession across the stage of the several hun-
dred actors representing the past, there fol-
lowed many hundred Vassar girls of to-day —
presaging woman’s intellectual life of the future.
Proressor C.-E. A. Winstow has taken
up his new work as professor of public health
MUSEUM NOTES
at the Yale Medical School, New Haven, but
in his capacity as curator of public health at
the American Museum he will be in New York
regularly on Tuesdays.
Dr. GeorcE F. Kunz, honorary curator of
gems in the American Museum, has been
awarded a gold medal at the Panama Pacific
Exposition for his collection of publications
on gems. Tiffany and Company, with whose
firm Dr. Kunz has long been identified as gem
expert, have been awarded the grand prize
for their collection illustrating the formation
of gems under changing mineralogical and
geological conditions. The books and mono-
graphs by Dr. Kunz occupy one case of the
Tiffany exhibit.
Mrs. ADRIAN HoFrrmMaNn JOLINE has re-
cently been elected a life member of the
Museum in acknowledgment of her generous
contributions to the funds of the Asiatic
expedition for the collection of mammals.
Major John V. Lauderdale, Surgeon United
States Army has also been made a life
member in appreciation of his gift to the
Museum of a collection of ethnological speci-
mens.
Messrs. FRANK E. Lutz and A. J. Mutcu-
LER spent six weeks of the past summer
studying and collecting insects and spiders
in Porto Rico. The work was a part of the
insular survey being made under the auspices
of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Considerable territory was covered, especially
in the western portion of the island. More
than fifteen thousand specimens were ob-
tained.
On Friday evening, November 19, Dr. G.
Clyde Fisher, assistant curator of public
education at the American Museum, will
lecture to the adult blind of New York City
and Brooklyn on ‘Bird Neighbors and their
Homes.” The procedure at this and subse-
quent lectures will differ from that at previous
lectures, in that small habitat groups of the
birds and their nests will be placed in the
entrance hall that the blind may handle them
and thus have a definite idea of the birds as
they are mentioned in the lecture. The
doors will be open for the inspection of birds
and their nests at 7.45, the lecture following
at 8.15. On December 17, Mr. Ernest Harold
Baynes will lecture to the blind on animal life.
375
Tue twentieth free exhibition in the art
gallery of the Washington Irving high school,
Irving Place, New York, consisted of primi-
tive American textiles loaned by the Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History. Peruvian
cloth and weaving implements, and Navajo,
Chilkat, Saltillo and Chimayo blankets com-
prised the exhibit.
A coursE of lectures open to school chil-
dren will be given at the American Museum
on Monday afternoons at four o’clock, begin-
ning November 1 and lasting through Decem-
ber 6; Wednesday afternoons, beginning
November 3 and lasting through December 8;
and Friday afternoons beginning October 2
up to and including December 10. A people’s
course will be given on Tuesday and Saturday
evenings in conjunction with the department
of education at 8.15 and will continue through
December 21.
Dr. L. P. Graracap, curator of mineralogy
at the American Museum, has just returned
from a recreative trip of two months over
Canada. ‘Traveling from east to west, he en-
joyed a rapid survey of the plains of Manitoba,
Saskatchewan and Alberta, with some exami-
nation of the commercial and economic features
of Winnipeg, Medicine-Hat, Calgary and Sud-
bury, also impressions of the geological devel-
opments of the Rockies and the Selkirks.
Durine the past year Mr. Roy C. Andrews
has been preparing a monograph on the sei
whale (Balenoptera borealis Lesson), a fine
skeleton of which he secured in Japan dur-
ing the summer of 1910. Although the sei
whale has formed the basis of the summer
fishery of the Japanese for some fifteen
years, it had never reached the attention of
a scientific observer and was supposed not
to occur in the Pacific. The forthcoming
monograph is the result of collaboration
with Professor Hermon von W. Schulte of
the department of comparative anatomy of
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New
York City, who has made an elaborate study
of the soft anatomy of a sei whale foetus
which Mr. Andrews brought from Japan in
1910. Thisis the first time that the anatomy
of any species of large whale has been treated
in a monographic form. *
Tue Garner African Film Company has
recently been organized for the purpose of
376
sending Mr. Richard L. Garner to Africa to
get motion pictures of the native and animal
life of that part of the country which he
knows so well. He will make especial effort
to secure motion pictures of gorillas and
chimpanzees. Mr. Garner is well known to
the public as the man who years ago made a
study in Africa of the language of the gorilla
and chimpanzee. The directors of the new
company are Mr. Carl E. Akeley of the Ameri-
can Museum, Messrs. Raymond L. Ditmars
and H. R. Mitchell of the New York Zodlogical
Society and Mr. William C. Glass.
Dr. Rosert H. Lowie, leaving the Museum
early in June, visited the Kiowa to ascertain
the character of their military societies, and
spent the remainder of June and the month
of July with the Hopi of Arizona paying
particular attention to their clan and family
relationships. He attended the meetings of
the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science and of the American An-
thropological Association at Berkeley during
August, and was official delegate at the
Panama Pacific Exposition, representing the
Borough of Manhattan on Manhattan Day.
AMONG important recent additions to the
hall of public health in the Museum is a
model showing the increased efficiency of the
present hospital service at Panama over that
of the French period. This model shows a
hospital in the French period in care of a
Sister of Mercy. Puddles of water were
allowed to gather about the ground, and the
legs of the beds were placed in cans of water
to prevent ants from crawlingup. As we now
know, yellow fever and malarial fever
mosquitoes bred in such accumulations of
stagnant water and helped to keep the
hospitals well filled. Screens were not used
and the ventilation was not of the best. The
companion part of the model shows a French
hospital, altered to conform to our most
modern ideas and knowledge of the relation
of insect and disease. A clean, dry cellar,
well-kept grounds, screens, increased ventila-
tion and the care of trained nurses serve to
change an insanitary, disease-breeding build-
ing into the acme of sanitation.
TurouGH the generosity of Mr. Ogden
Mills the Museum library has received a copy
of the colored edition of the famous Antiqui-
ties of Mexico by Lord Kingsborough. This
monumental work in nine folio volumes,
published 1831-48, was originally undertaken
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
by Lord Kingsborough in order to test the
theory, then prevalent, that the American
Indians were the lost tribes of Israel. He
made facsimile reproductions of all native
manuscripts from Mexico and Central
America then known, including many famous
codices of the Maya and the Mexicans; re-
published many valuable government reports
and collected all available evidence bearing
upon Mexican civilization. The work con-
tains one thousand plates, colored by hand
from the originals, embracing the remains of
Mexican picture-writing, architecture and
sculpture, thus giving to the world a record
of one of the most wonderful civilizations ever
known. There are facsimilies of the ancient
paintings and hieroglyphics preserved in the
royal libraries of Paris, Berlin, Dresden and
Vienna; the Vatican Library; the Borgian
Museum at Rome;- the library of the Insti-
tute at Bologna and the famous Bodleian
Library at Oxford. To-day this work, con-
taining as it does the only reproductions ever
issued of a number of very important native
manuscripts, is absolutely indispensable to
students of Mexican archeology.
Durine the past summer Messrs. Roy W.
Miner and Herman O. Mueller of the depart-
ment of invertebrate zodlogy of the Muse-
um, investigated the marine coastal fauna of
Porto Rico, as a part of the biological survey
of that island being made by the New York
Academy of Sciences. Headquarters were
established at Ensenada on Guanica Harbor
through the courtesy of the Guanica Sugar
Centrale which furnished many facilities to
the expedition. Collecting was carried on in
Guanica Harbor and the adjacent portions of
the coast, including the outlying coral reefs
from Guayanilla Bay westward to Cabo Rojo.
This summer’s work together with that of last
season completes the survey of the entire
western half of the south coast of Porto Rico,
besides the work already done at San Juan on
the northern coast and Mayaguez on the
western coast.
Tue classification of the shore fishes col-
lected by the Townsend “ Albatross”? Expedi-
tion to Lower California in 1911 is now near-
ing completion. This work has been done
by Dr. Raymond C. Osburn of the New York
Aquarium assisted by the Museum’s depart-
ment of ichthyology. The collection includes
sixteen new species besides several others
which were very little known.
.
The American Museum of Natural History
Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City
Open free to the public on every day in the year.
The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the
Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people.
It is dependent
upon private subscriptions and the fees from members for procuring needed additions to the
collections and for carrying on explorations in America and other parts of the world.
membership fees are,
Avi aleWieMmbDerss<.. «26 ele syne se $ 10
Sustaining Members (annually)... 25
TniferViemipers. 5-43 creeks «clea 100
IBEMLOWS suas. Sai). sae erase 500
The
IPRA SS Wie ten etite fie S coat See $1,000
Associate Benefactors. ............. 10,000
Associate Hounders... i... 82 200528 25,000
Begelactors' ie. aces we eee one as 50,000
Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request to members and teachers by the
department of public education.
the department for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied.
In all cases the best results are obtained with small groups
classes may also be arranged for.
of children.
Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone
Lectures to
The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working collection
of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and abroad.
The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays excepted —
from 9 A.M. to5 P.M.
The Technical Publications of the Museum comprise the Memoirs, Bulletin and
Anthropological Papers, the Memoirs and Bulletin edited by J. A. Allen, the Anthropological
Papers by Clark Wissler.
the institution.
These publications cover the field and laboratory researches of
The Popular Publications of the Museum comprise the JouRNAL, edited by Mary
Cynthia Dickerson, the Handbooks, Leaflets and General Guide.
The following list gives
some of the popular publications; complete lists, of both technical and popular publications,
may be obtained from the Librarian.
POPULAR PUBLICATIONS
HANDBOOKS
NortH AMERICAN INDIANS OF THE PLAINs. By Clark
Wissler, Ph.D. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.
INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST. By Pliny Earle Goddard,
Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.
ANIMALS OF THE Past. By Frederic A. Lucas, Sc.D.
Paper, 35 cenls.
ILLUSTRATED GUIDE LEAFLETS
GENERAL GUIDE TO THE CoLLEcTIONS. New edition
issued December, 1914. Price, 25 cents.
Tue CoLuectTion oF MINERALS. By Louis P. Grata-
cap, A.M. Price, 5 cents.
NortrH AMERICAN RUMINANTS.
Price, 10 cents.
Tue AncrenT Basket Makers or SOUTHEASTERN
Uran. By George H. Pepper. Price, 10 cents.
Primitive Art. Price, 15 cents.
Tue Birps oF THE Vicinity or New York City. By
Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D. Price, 15 cents.
PeruviaN Mummies. By Charles W. Mead. Price,
10 cents.
Tue METEORITES IN THE FOYER OF THE AMERICAN
Museum or Naturau History. By Edmund Otis
Hovey, Ph.D. Price, 10 cents.
Tue Hasirat Groupes or NortH AMERICAN Birps.
By Frank M. Chapman, Se.D. Price, 15 cents.
By J. A. Allen, Ph.D.
Tue INDIANS OF MANHATTAN ISLAND AND VICINITY.
By Alanson Skinner. Jn preparation.
Tue Strokes PAINTINGS REPRESENTING GREENLAND
Eskimo. Price, 5 cents.
Brier History or ANTARCTIC EXPLORATIONS.
10 cents.
TREES AND Forestry. By Mary Cynthia Dickerson,
B.S. A new edition in course of preparation.
THE Protection or River AND HARBOR WATERS FROM
MunicipaL Wastes. By Charles-Edward Amory
Winslow, M.S. Price, 10 cents.
Piant Forms 1n Wax. By E. C. B. Fassett.
10 cents.
THe Evo.uTion or THE Horse.
Ph.D. Price, 20 cents.
Price,
Price,
By W.D Matthew,
REPRINTS
THe Grounp StorH Group. By W. D. Matthew,
Ph.D. Price, 5 cents.
Meruops anp REsuLTs In HERPETOLOGY.
Cynthia Dickerson, B.S. P ice, 5 cents.
THe WuHarr Pitt Group. By Roy W. Miner, A.B.
Price, 5 cents. |
THe Sea Worm Grove.
Price, 10 cents.
Tur ANCESTRY OF THE EDENTATES.
thew, Ph.D. Price, 5c nts:,
By Mary
By Roy W. Miner, A.B.
By W. D. Mat-
”
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM |
OF le,
NATURAL HISTORY —
. rs : “ ead BF ES
tg ;
Sy My FOR THE PEOPLE
FOR EDVCATION
“% FOR SC THEN.CAS =
.
&
m
a
is
wey
The American Museum of Natural History
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
President
r
Henry Farrrigtp OsBorNn
First Vice-President .
CLEVELAND H. DopGE
Treasurer
CHARLES LANIER
Second Vice-President
J. P. MorGan
Secretary
ADRIAN ISELIN, JR.
JoHN Purroy Mircuenr, Mayor or THE City or New YorK
Witu1am A. PRENDERGAST, COMPTROLLER OF THE City or NEw YorK
Casot Warpb, PRESIDENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
GrorcE F. BAKER
FREDERICK F. BREWSTER
JoserpH H. CHoatTe
R. Fuiron Curtine
Tuomas DrWitrr CuyLeR
JAMES DouGuas
Henry C. Frick
Mapison GRANT
Anson W. Harp
ArcHER M. HuNTINGTON
ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES
Water B. JAMES
SetH Low
OGpEN MILLS
Percy R. PYNE
JOHN B. TREVOR
Fevtix M. Warsure
GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM
A. D. JUILLIARD
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS
Director
Freperic A. Lucas
Assistant Treasurer
Tue UNITED States Trust COMPANY
Assistant Secretary
GerorGE H. SHERWOOD
oF New Yor«K
SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Freperic A. Lucas, Sc.D., Director
Geology and Invertebrate Paleontology
Epmunp Otis Hovey, Ph.D., Curator
CuesterR A. Reeps, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Mineralogy
L. P. Gratacap, A.M., Curator
GeEorGE F. Kunz, Ph.D., Honorary Curator Gems
Woods and Forestry
Mary Cyntruia Dickerson, B.S., Curator
Invertebrate Zodlogy
Henry E. Crampton, Ph.D., Curator
Roy-W. Miner, A.B., Asst. Curator
Frank E. Lurz, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
L. P. Gratacap, A.M., Curator Mollusca
A. J. MutcuueEr, Assistant
Frank E. Watson, B.S., Assistant
W. M. WHueeter, Ph.D., Hon. Curator Social
Insects
A. L. TREADWELL, Ph.D., Hon. Curator Annulata
Cuarwes W. Lena, B.S., Hon. Curator Coleoptera
Ichthyology and Herpetology
Basurorp Dean, Ph.D., Curator Emeritus
Lovis Hussaxor, Ph.D., Curator Ichthyology
Joun T. Nicuots, A.B., Asst. Cur. Recent Fishes
Mary Cynruia Dickerson, B.S., Assoc. Curator
Herpetology
Mammalogy and Ornithology
J. A. Auten, Ph.D., Curator
Frank M. Cuapman, Se.D., Curator Ornithology
Roy C. Anprews, A.M., Asst. Cur. Mammalogy
W. DeW. Mitter, Asst. Curator Ornithology
H. E. Antuony, B.S., Assistant Mammalogy
Hersert Lana, Assistant Mammalogy
James P. Cuapin, Assistant Ornithology
Vertebrate Palwontology
Henry FatrrieELp Ossorn, LL.D., D.Sce., Curator
Emeritus
W. D. Marruew, Ph.D., Curator
WALTER GRANGER, Assoc. Curator [Mammals]
Barnum Brown, A.B., Assoc. Curator [Reptiles]
Witiiam K. GreGory, Ph.D., Assoc. in Palzon-
tology
Cuar.Les R. Eastman, Ph.D., Research Associate
Anthropology
Cuiark Wiss.LeER, Ph.D., Curator
Puiiny E. Gopparp, Ph.D., Curator Ethnology
Ropert H. Lowie, Ph.D., Assoc. Curator
HERBERT J. SpPINDEN, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Neus C. Netson, M.L., Asst. Curator
CuHarR Les W. MeEap, Asst. Curator
ALANSON SKINNER, Asst. Curator
Haran I. Smitru, Hon. Curator Archeology
M. D. C. Crawrorp, Research Associate in Tex-
tiles
Anatomy and Physiology
Raxrexu W. Tower, Ph.D., Curator
Public Health
CHARLES-EpwarRp A. WiNnstow, M.S., Curator
IsrRAEL J. Kuicuer, Ph.D., Assistant
Public Education
GeEorGE H. SHerwoop, A.M., Curator
G. Ciype& Fisuer, Ph.D., Asst. Curator
Ann E. Tuomas, Ph.B., Assistant
| Books and Publications
RaupeH W. Tower, Ph.D., Curator
Ipa Ricuarpson Hoop, A.B., Asst. Librarian
THe AMERICAN Museum Journal
VoLUME XV DECEMBER, 1915 NuMBER 8
CONTENTS
Cover, Azande Warriors in Sham Fight
Photographs taken in the Congo by Mr. Herbert Lang
Hromuspicce, Portrait: of Mr Herbert ane 0 oe. ee aes e eel cate. ey (>)
Aim Explorer's: View ol the. omen... 9.0 3 «0 es oo HERBERT Lana 379
An authoritative study of the conditions in the Congo and of the natives in their relation to
the Belgian administration
Illustrations from photographs of the Congo natives taken during a six-years’ residence
among them *%
Reproductions in Duotone of African Photographs.............. opposite 388
Twelve photographs selected from the seven thousand brought from Africa by Mr. Herbert
Lang, to give a picture of the life of the Congo negroes
micieni ascites: of “(New Mexieo.': 2... 208 a0 ee N. C. NEetson 389
Illustrations from photographs of the ruins under process of excavation by Mr. Nelson
Explorations in the Southwest by the American Museum..CLark WIssLER 395
Resume of the Museum’s field research in the southwestern United States between 1909
and 1915
mainisee-Liown.. Glass: : ....24 $..) aces. eae eee HerMAN O. MUELLER 399
A glimpse behind the scenes in the American Museum’s preparation shop
The American Museum’s Reptile Groups in Relation to High School Biology.
Grorce W. Hunter 405
Hunting Deer-in the Adirondacks................ Roy CHapMan ANDREWS 409
Illustrations from still and motion pictures by the Author
Newssixom-the ‘Crocker Land Expedition... 225) 2. ..~.; $2. 520203 te 415
Quotation from letters from the Arctic
Beginnings of American Natural History............ CHARLES R. Eastman 417
Concluded from the November issue of the JourNau
A Valuable New Bird Book: A Review.............. T. GiLBerT PEARSON 423
Mragmentsrot sopider Lore ©. $4. vax5 a) b. Roe Ao Frank E. Lutz 424
Corythosaurus, the New Duck-billed Dinosaur.
W. D. Matruew and Barnum Brown 427
MPMscninieeIN@tese 55.0.5 fd ook: . eee eee ACS ee eet eee yee ae ae 428
Mary Cyntaia Dickerson, Editor
Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History, at the
Cosmos Press, Cambridge, Mass. Terms: one dollar and a half per year, twenty cents per copy.
Entered as second-class matter January 12, 1907, at the Post-Office at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress,
July 16, 1894.
Subscriptions should be addressed to the AmEricAN Museum Journat, 77th St. and
Central Park West, New York City.
The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum.
Photo by DeWitt C. Ward
MR. HERBERT LANG, LEADER OF THE
AMERICAN MUSEUM’S CONGO EXPEDITION; 1909-1915
THe American Museum Journal
DECEMBER, 1915 NUMBER 8
VotumE. XV
AN EXPLORER’S VIEW OF THE CONGO
By Herbert Lang
Illustrations from photographs by the Author
The history of the Museum’s work in the Congo is well-known to JouRNAL readers.}
Mr. Herbert Lang, leader, and Mr. James P. Chapin, assistant, have carried the Congo expedi-
tion successfully through more than six years’ work in Central Africa. The expedition was
organized in 1909 on a tentative basis of three years’ work and was supported by the contribu-
tions of the following men of New York: Messrs. John B. Trevor, Charles Lanier, Cleveland H.
Dodge, J. P. Morgan, Jr., William K. Vanderbilt, A. D. Juilliard, Robert W. Goelet and
William Rockefeller. An extension of time for the work, in order to complete a zodlogical
survey of the unexplored territory, was made possible through the Jesup Fund of the Museum.
Mr. Lang and Mr. Chapin have now returned, and the large and splendidly preserved
collections with their valuable data, ready for extensive scientific research as well as for the
construction of habitat groups for exhibition, have reached America and are safely housed in the
Museum buildings.
The following article by Mr. Lang on the natives of the Congo, is author-
tative in that it is based on a six-years’ intimate acquaintance with natives of many tribes and a
six-years’ first-hand knowledge of conditions in the Congo.— Tur Eprror
REAT progress in civilization
unfortunately often seems to
be accompanied by incidents
which throw some gloom on the result.
At the time of the Belgian occupation
of the Congo Basin no other power
coveted this particular piece of territory.
Practically all of its inhabitants were
cannibals, a large portion had been
laid waste by Arab slave-traders and by
the Mahdists, and the country certainly
deserved its reputation of being one of
the most unhealthful regions.
Other European nations had
plenty of opportunity to carry the torch
of progress into the swampy regions of
darkest Africa, but the possession al-
ready by these colonizing powers of
really prosperous colonies seems to show
that political, financial and commercial
advantages were preferred by them to
what they probably considered a glori-
had
~the internecine warfare which
ous but venturesome task. The Congo
was therefore left to the King of the
Belgians. Nor would it have been
advantageous to continue to abandon its
natives to the Arab slavers with their
indescribable atrocities; to the Mahdists,
who had already left a large and once
prosperous section of Africa in a nearly
desert condition, and to the horrors of
is the
inevitable sequel of cannibalism. It
was well that some power should under-
take the civilization of the natives even
though difficulties and misunderstand-
ings might ensue.
If there had been (as some critics of
the government seem to infer there were)
1The full story of the aims of the expedition
and its start from New York on May 8, 1909,
is told in the Journaut for October, 1910; various
briefvarticles regarding the work in progress have
appeared at intervals between that date and the
present.
379
380
vast numbers of noble-minded and well-
equipped men available for this task,
progress would undoubtedly have been
easier; but most men were deterred by
the dangers and discomforts, and those
offering their services were naturally
of an adventurous and independent
character. In many cases it proved to
be a question as to whether the King of
the Belgians could accept the responsi-
bilities that naturally were connected
with the services of such people, because
positions in the Congo in those early
periods often meant full autocratic
power, with very little immediate con-
trol by superior officers. In the greater
part of what has been written however,
about the Congo and its administration,
these initial difficulties are overlooked
and more criticism than praise has been
bestowed. Men of high distinction and
indubitably noble sentiments have en-
rolled themselves in the campaign
against this administration, in perfect
good faith and in the belief that they
were rendering a service to humanity.
The greatest reproach — the matter
which seemed to arouse unlimited criti-
cism —was the collecting of rubber
by natives in payment of their taxes, and
the stories of the horrors connected
therewith. There is no doubt at all
that the sale of this rubber netted some
very handsome financial gains, and cer-
tainly honest criticism was much needed
at one time in order to correct the
methods employed by some of the
administrative officers, who were natu-
rally anxious to show what they consid-
ered high ability in administrating their
territories; or to put it correctly in just
these faulty cases, in ruling what they
considered their own little kingdoms.
What was needed however was not a
campaign against atrocities, but an
honest effort toward improving certain
conditions so as to induce a larger num-
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
ber of men of a higher type to live in
the Congo. These might have devoted
themselves actively to civilizing efforts,
and by their very presence a change
in defective conditions would have been
brought about without causing embitter-
ment. As a matter of fact, if the well-
being and civilization of the natives alone
are to be considered as the ultimate
object of conquest, there are few portions
of Africa which have a higher record
for truly remarkable advance than the
Belgian Congo itself; but the impetu-
osity of the unfortunate campaign of the
reformers is responsible for producing
a number of laws of such great leniency
that the strong and successfully guiding
hand is often stayed by mappropriate
measures, which positively injure the
general welfare of the natives. Some of
these laws actually seem systematically
to encourage degradation by openly en-
couraging idleness, although the negro
would be perfectly willing to contribute
his share to the progress and elevation
of his race, which will probably never be
attained except by giving him a fair
chance for useful work and by estab-
lishing correct compensation.
This unsatisfactory legislation indeed,
seems to have been the chief result
achieved by the agitators, whereas if we
consider the Belgian Congo as a whole,
with a view to determining what great
reforms have benefited the natives, we
find that it is to the Belgian govern-
ment that they are essentially due.
The natives of the Congo like meat,
and from all we saw they enjoy a mar-
velous digestion. They have been called
by opponents of the government “poor
defenseless children.” As a matter of
fact there were eleven millions of canni-
bals, who in a single day probably killed
for mere food purposes more of their un-
fortunate fellow-men than the number
laid by these critics at the doors of all
T8&
SOATVU OY} SUOUTR JUOUZUOJMOD JO 9}¥4S OY} JO PUL TONVAYSTUTUIpPL JUOTIUIOAOS ATOJOVIJSTVVS OY} JO OAISOBSns st sty, “Aanf{uy your
10 pozvoddesip peo] o[3uIs B yOu UOeUT OFT M Aq UOISTAJOdNS [VUOIsSedD0 ATMO YIM Osesoj10d ,sAVp AQJY JO doUBISIP V JOAO PollIVd SpeOT L8ZT 94} JO 4No ey} 4sodojUr
‘QuejSISSe OATIVU B JO A[WUO OSIvVYO UT S4oj10d yorylq Jo skepfor Aq
‘af{peiey Jo ysod oy} Suravoy suojsod porpuny e& Jo uvARIeO
MYOA MAN OL ASNHYNOP ONOT YISHL ONILYVLS NOILIGSAdX4S ODNOO AHL AO SNOILOA1100
yonu JO joey BST AT ‘Wovo spunod A4xIs Jo peor. e surAaIvd Avp B SoTTU U90}JY OF U9} HEM AOUL
qsod 0} 4sod woud speoy oy} Jo uoKez10dsue1y IOJ posuvaIe A[SNOo}MOD s[eVIoyjO JUSUTUIOAOK)
Old Mobali man. The hair is allowed to grow
long in age; the young men wear it shaven or
short
the trespassing government officials to-
gether. Even their dead were often
sold to neighbors to satisfy the hunger
Incidentally — this
for meat. horrible
Azande woman. The headdress is made of
human hair, woven upon a framework of rattan
and decorated with cowrie shells
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
practice produced some fairly good
results in eugenics, as in many tribes
weakened people or crippled children
helped to nourish their more sturdy
brothers.
From the very start the government
stopped internecine war and cannibal-
ism; invited professional reformers;
made traveling through these regions
practically safe; established a system of
river navigation; drove out slave-traders
and Mahdists; introduced an elaborate
judiciary system, and built in spite of
apparently insurmountable difficulties,
a two-hundred-and-forty-mile railroad
near the coast belt, which really meant
the opening of the Congo to the world at
large.
For over two years we lived in a dis-
trict where, at that time, probably
greater quantities of rubber were being
collected by the natives than in any other
region of the Congo. We often received
specimens for our zodlogical collections
from these rubber caravans which entered
the forest for a week or a fortnight. In
fact they considered us rather as friends
and thus we had ample opportunity of
seeing them at work. Only a few re-
marks are necessary to throw light on the
general conditions as we observed them.
Long ago, when cannibalism was still
flourishing, these negroes always left be-
tween the localities of the principal tribes
large, uninhabited belts in the forest, so
that the chance of continued or immedi-
ate invasion by their ever-hungry neigh-
bors might be slightly reduced. This
belt was naturally also the hunting
ground, as in such a reservation game
was fairly abundant, and not many
natives would dare to venture alone into
this wilderness. At certain periods how-
ever, two or three times a year, the great
chiefs would collect their natives and
would enter this uninhabited forest-belt,
either to gather household necessities
AN EXPLORER’S VIEW OF THE CONGO
or with the intention of organizing a raid
upon the villages beyond. They often
formed caravans of several hundred in-
dividuals — men, women and children —
carrying everything for the necessities
of life with them, most of the men of
course being armed with spears and
arrows. No halfway respectable negro
would leave his wife in the village.
Even the chief’s more important women
would have considered it a disgrace if
they had been compelled to stay at home.
Naturally the children were only too glad
of an outing and no mother would leave
her youngster behind. The forest sup-
plies these negroes with everything
their small plantations are unable to
provide: building and household mate-
rial; meat to be dried over the fire; the
hides of game; plants for medicines;
a great many charms; in fact every-
thing they cannot find in the neighbor-
hood of their villages, where they have
usually cut down the forest.
Rubber collecting is exactly the same
kind of occupation as this other collect-
ing, only it excludes all raids. There is
not the slightest change, except that the
natives add rubber to all the other things
they gathered before. The remunera-
tion given by the state at the time we
entered the Congo was still in trade
goods of excellent quality. In 1910 the
natives, in spite of delivering this rubber
as taxes, received more for it than later
in 1914 after the introduction of cur-
rency, as the price of this commodity had
then dropped in the European market.
When we passed through the same region
again the natives openly complained that
the commercial agents paid even less than
the government officials formerly.
Before the advent of the government
these natives had to work much harder,
as a result of the continued destruction
brought about by internecine war. Vil-
lages were burnt down and plantations
©" A ‘Parisienne’’ of the Mangbetu tribe.
The
head is bound with a fine cord made of raffia,
banana fibre or hair, while the natural hair is
woven into a frame of rattan fibre. This toilet
takes two days to perform
destroyed and the men had to rebuild
and replant and always to keep them-
Makere woman.
out as a tribal mark, and a bone pin is worn
through the nasal septum
The concha of the ear is cut
selves fit for fighting. After the pacifi-
cation of these regions, which actually
contained so many able-bodied men, it
was surely better that they should be
intelligently organized so that their
unemployed energies might serve the
progress of civilization, than that they
should be left to drunkenness and sloth.
In most of the districts there was nothing
of value but rubber and ivory, and the
natives were put to work to collect some
of the rubber. They prefer this work
to porterage or road-making, which latter
they consider a woman’s occupation.
The freedom of trade and the intro-
duction of currency could hardly have
been brought about more rapidly. In
many districts however, the first arrivals
oS A pment
- %
Pygmies from Nala, in the Uele District.
agricultural tribes for vegetables.
plaster casts to be made of their faces
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
representing this freedom of trade were
of the most ordinary class of adventurers,
who considered the native but an object
for their greed. The wisdom of with-
holding these people so long was abun-
dantly apparent, for only the confidence
which the government officers enjoyed
among the natives saved the lives of
some of them. These natives are rather
independent in their decisions and rash
in action. .
To-day the country is well policed;
the natives are — or at least were before
the war — perfectly peaceful, and in our
six years among them we never saw a
single atrocity. Fortunately the posi-
tion of the lower administrative officers
has been rendered much more attractive,
They live by hunting, and exchange their spoils with the
Two hundred of them visited the expedition and many allowed
The pieces of iron in the shape of spearheads represent currency and, together with the dog and
lumps of crude iron, constitute the man’s offering to the parents for his bride.
The chief of the tribe,
in public palaver, decides as to the justice of the bargain
and now most of the men engaged look
upon their more stable position with
satisfaction. This alone does away with
irresponsible actions and the increased
comfort and security tends greatly to
minimize the dangers of the dreaded
Congo climate. Many of the local dis-
turbances in administrating the native
population have been due to the tempo-
rary illness or general indisposition of
European officers, who on this account
were unable to show that high degree of
patience and firmness which the success-
ful handling of these natives requires.
The latter express themselves as fairly
content, comparing past times with the
present. Only one blessing they still
covet, “The remedy to avoid ultimate
death.”” They have not the slightest
tendency toward philosophic § specula-
tion, nor are they capable of attaching
themselves readily to purely spiritual
beliefs. Their happiness or safety de-
pends, according to their idea, upon all
sorts of conditions or objects which,
like a talisman, are supposed to possess
powers of preventing mischief or disaster.
So imbued are they with these supersti-
tions that death, with all of them, is not
the final and natural destruction of life
but the result of witchcraft.
Those who know the natives well
never doubt that their faith is infinitely
stronger than that of many Christians.
Their superstitions are more than a
belief. These superstitions often repre-
sent stern laws the very cruelty of which
frightens them away from wrong-doing.
This is the rock of salvation for reform.
These natives‘sometimes kill their
fellow-men without what may be called a
trial, but it is only a few hundred years
since white men killed thousands of their
brethren simply because they had a dif-
385
386
ferent faith or conviction, and it is only
to-day that they recognize that the defec-
tive organization of society is responsible
for many criminals. None of the natives
indulge any longer in cannibalism; yet
those most anxious to help them, and
many of the professional reformers,
Makere women and children watching a dance.
heads are wrapped to lengthen the occipital region, this elongation
being considered a mark of beauty.
speak even now about their “degraded
condition,” ‘shameless manners,” and
“behaviour like animals,” perhaps be-
cause the warm climate allows them to
walk about in just the state that seems,
from all accounts, to have been the most
satisfactory in Paradise.
The dancing costume of the
women" consists of a green banana leaf slit into ribbons
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
They are not necessarily degraded
because they enjoy life according to their
own standards, which in essentials do not
differ so very widely from those of civil-
ized people; nor because they are cap-
able of living well on native food with-
out silverware or china. It is true that
they are born and die
in the densest super-
stition, but this latter
is their religion, their
code of morals, their
own very rigid set of
laws, which binds them
together in spite of all
savage feeling in true
democratic spirit. The
saw dis-
played a most admira-
ble spirit of fellowship,
negroes We
cordially assisting one
another in any diffi-
culty. They might be
hungry themselves but
they unselfishly divided
their food, and this so
naturally that anyone
could see that the con-
trary would have con-
stituted a breach of
the generally accepted
The great-
est fallacy in judging
standards.
natives is the common
habit of travelers and
many residents of bas-
ing their judgment
about them upon infor-
mation received from
workmen, servants or
half-civilized negroes. Even the most
truthful individuals among these natives
generally try to speak from the white
The children’s
man’s point of view, displaying in this
great shrewdness, so that any question
asked is answered with the desire of
pleasing the inquirer. This really ac-
L8& e
119d W9pooOM sqI YIM Sop Suyuny oy Jo pre eyy Aq
Sjou oY} PAVMO} UDATIP puv Poors} sy [RUTUR oY, “punoris oY} Yono} 07 Ysnf se os syoys Aq A[[VoA0A poqsoddns pur JoYyI0S0) pousysey ore Arwvd AOI sqou OU,
INNH V WOY4 MOVE ‘SSAILVN 3YSyVAN
388
counts for the many contradictory state-
ments as to what would benefit these
tribes most and what might be their
greatest grievances.
The missionary societies in many
cases receive special subsidies and are
teaching mainly elementary classes in
principal centers such as Boma and
Stanleyville, some extending facilities
for certain branches of industrial train-
ing. A really unified system of educa-
tion can be introduced only when the
facilities of communication lead to a
greater centralization of the now widely
scattered population.
It is probable that the present war-
fare in Central Africa, and especially
in the Congo Basin, will prove relatively
more disastrous to the black race of these
regions than the European war to the
different nations engaged therein; in
spite of the fact that the belligerents
on both sides have given out orders to
the native soldiery to direct their princi-
pal aim to the destruction of the com-
manding white officers, so that it is not
remarkable that only very few black
men have been killed in the various en-
gagements. Neither firearms nor
plosives will play havoc among the
e€x-
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
natives, but unfortunately the greater
part of the territory in which this war-
fare is waged includes the districts most
affected by the terrible sleeping-sickness,
such as the Uganda, Tanganyika, Kat-
anga and Sanga frontiers. Thousands
of armed natives will certainly be in-
fected before their dispersal at the con-
clusion of the war. They will carry
this dread disease into nearly every re-
gion. Since the tsetse flies, the carriers
of the sleeping-sickness germs, are widely
distributed they will cause the rapid
spread of this plague, for if they have an
opportunity to suck the blood of only
one infected person they may cause dis-
aster by transmitting the disease to others
living nearby. Once a region is thor-
oughly infected the natives are simply
wiped out. This condition is the more
hopeless since the usual prophylactic
measures are considerably weakened as a
result of the war and there is thus prac-
tically no hope of checking the scourge;
for it needs the most exacting efforts of a
well-equipped medical service, which en-
tails an enormous expenditure. Most
authorities believe that after the conclu-
sion of peace there will be no large funds
available for the benefit of African colonies.
Logo women dancing in thanksgiving for a good harvest
REPRODUCTIONS IN DUOTONE OF PHOTOGRAPHS
GIVING GLIMPSES OF THE LIFE OF THE
NATIVES IN THE CONGO
Photographed in Africa between 1909 and 1915 by Mr. Herbert Lang
Ae ore B fbn
+e & tn Ve x pw *% * ee 4
¥ Ai : ‘ ahs ot ee ai ~ ars s “am,
‘ “Firs en at's Ye > NMSA Davee at Vhs Stoke Oe el =: MBS, a : " \
LOGO HUNTERS OF FARADJE, UELE DISTRICT
They use these large bows and arrows for the bigger game, as antelopes and wild pigs. In war they
pull the string with a twang-which startles the foe, causing him to stop or turn, when a
quickly fitted arrow brings him down. ‘The small bells attached to the bow each indi-
cate a particularly fine shot; during a hunt the bells are stopped with leaves
but at a dance they jingle merrily. The man in front is a famous
elephant hunter, the most famous in his tribe
puvy Jayjte uo ‘daap aaj Uaalzy SAUIAWIOS ‘19}eM JY} POA O} YOO1 ay} UO Sulouvyeq ‘Jods awes ay} yw daap-1apjnoys
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NOSV4S AUG FHL NI 'SCOVeVA YVAN VWOLV YSAIY AHL
bk
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VYVONVIN YVAN ‘A9OVITIA S.VOIZNVYW NI..ASO DNIMOHS.. NANYVAdS JGNVZV
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7
EQS
MANZIGA, A CHIEF OF THE AZANDE
All important Azande chiefs in this region belong to the Avungura, the reigning clan. Most
of the Azande believe that after death they will be reincarnated as animals, and the
Avungura will then become lions. Manziga is one of the most important native
chiefs around Niangara, ruling a large territory. He is unusually
intelligent and exhibits much tact and diplomacy in deal-
ings with the Belgian administration
HEAD WIFE OF CHIEF ABIEMBALI; MAYOGO TRIBE,
ITURI DISTRICT
Beneath the small, square-topped hat of woven vegetable fiber, she wears a sort of
skull-cap adorned with hundreds of dogs’ teeth, mostly canines. The crown
of the hat is decorated with the red tail-feathers of the African gray
parrot, which bird is often kept in captivity so that the much
prized feathers can be pulled out as fast as they grow.
The larger hatpin is made entirely of ivory, while
the smaller consists of a thin, pointed bone
from the forearm of a monkey
SOSNOY AY} JO S|[VM OY} UO JIM puB Youlq ‘pat ul payuled sustsap ayy Jo Aple[nsaa ay} punoisyovq ul aJ0N
‘s[vAJayUL Jv A[UO pasodia}Ul SUleg SAUO JaS1L] ay) WOIZ }Vaq a[SUIs v ‘19}U99 ay} UL SWO}-WO} [[BUIS OM) AY Aq paonpo.d st astou ay) Jo
Iso puv sdauunp jtadxe A[[eMoadsa aye sAoq [[VUIg *adLI[IA ay) Ul SedURP LOJ BW] Yeaq 0} pasn 10 AaUANOl v UAAtTUA 0} JarYO B Jaye palavo aiv asayy,
NLAGONVW AHL AO SNWOL-WOL NS3QGQ0OM GNV SNYOH ANOAI
aie
py
j=
leg
A
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Jay} Aq patna pue uorssaiddo wiosyz 9a.1j 918 MOU nq ‘apuezy ay} Aq uodn podaid AjAawaA0j; 919M pure a[doad jso10j o1v OSayT,
INMH WsAaSSADSSONAS V ONILVESEATSSD SAYSaHNVN SHL AO SAONVG
‘so[puey Surpraoid [le} pue peasy 9uy
SuoS [eusis aBiv[ & st punossoioj ay} UT = *SpA09 yAeq YA\ punog pue
‘pROIG YIM JYSY-ayVM SPU SJOOI ay} puw “Y1Bq JO sdijs YIM pasaaoo aie sasnoy at{} JO S[[e OL
QoUBP IO SBI} 1OF UOTUUINS 0} 10 ASETIIA O} aSEI[IA Wor [BUSIS 0} pasn ST 1]
‘TeuUe Uv axl] podeys pue dal} B JO YUNA} oY} WO, UMOY ‘
Sla}fe1 94} O} SUIA}S I1aYy Aq payor}e Saava| Jey
NONNY YVAN ADVTITIA NLAGONVN V NI ANAOS
9AOGE UMOYS SI ASRI[IA SIF] ‘*pnoad Ar9A st ay sty) JO “UOT}P.YSIUIUIpe UeIS[ag a4} Aq paziusooas sev yueI sly jo
USIS [BIOYJO AY} SI You sIy Woy Sursuey pepou asiel ayy, ‘a[doad sty jo awios are pulyeq pue sjueasas
4JaIHSD NLAGONVW LNANINOd V'‘'VONVAG
Apoq a[euay OM} pur}s uly apisog
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yons Jo Sulpjing sy yj, ‘surer Aq uaTjoms SI Ureat}S JY} UY JUdLINS 9Y} 0} BdULISISOI yeaIS Jo sjqedvo puv saulA Suos Aq 1ay}980} punog sajod 1apuays AUeIU JO S}sISUod }]
NdVIN YVAN ‘VWIE AHL SSOUOV 39CIYa AAILVN
sjuaivd ay} Jo sje JayjO pue oysawop oy} Sutures [eloods jnoYIIM Uv] ‘UspIeS pue ISKI[IA Ul
Surdjay Aq ‘pue saat aaagorvo ‘Addey pee] usipyiyo asayy, “A[fweyz 1ayjOuN o}uL usxv} SABM]R SI ply uBYydio uv snyy
‘ asuadxa 10 Joqe] a[}I1] SAATOAUI UaIp[Iyo dn Sursuiq pue [njynuejd st pooy ‘usapyiyo ssayawoy jo asuas 9} Ul ‘OSuOD ay} ul SuvYydio OU a1v ala, J,
SA9OVTITIA AHL NI AV1d OL YAHLVS ASHL SV NAYCTIHD AIA IVAN
suooudayye AVpUNG UO SUOI}L}S JUDWUIDAOS Ul UDUIYIOM SAU Y}IM So}1OAV] ae puv ‘s}OII}SIp payesedas ATapIM Ul UdAS aq 0} ae ‘SUISUIS pue a[OII0
a4} Opisul Uayveq suIMAp YAIM ‘adA} Suyejos-A[MO]sS ‘xepNoI19 sty} Jo Sooueq = ‘“awiysed 107 ul pasjnpul osye ore Ady) ‘aouvoylUsIs sNOLsljaI uaJO aavY SadUep YSNoYT,
SaraqvuVva YVAN ‘NSAWOM SCNVZV AO SONVAG
INSERT PRINTED BY
Mexican laborers at work clearing a part of the oldest eastern section of the ruin at San Pedro
Viejo.
The debris thrown out is a mixture of ashes and lumps of adobe from the fallen walls, in and
under which are buried numerous human skeletons; also various implements, pottery, charred maize,
and animal bones. View looking northwest
ANCIENT CITIES OF NEW MEXICO!
By N. C. Nelson
ONG before Columbus and _ his
Norse predecessors set foot on
American soil there had arisen
a peculiar type of town-building people
in the southwestern part of the United
States. This is a fact which at first
strikes the observer as_ paradoxical.
To the modern traveler who hastens
across New Mexico and. Arizona by
train or auto, the country seems foreign,
being apparently devoid of all the forms
of life familiar to him in the East. He
sees mostly bare, tawny-colored plains
and rockbound mesas, interspersed with
black lava-sheets and flying sand. The
beds of nearly all of the tortuous
streams winding through the landscape
1This article was written by Mr. Nelson on
November 2, out-of-doors, as he sat on the ruin
under process of excavation and watched the men
work. It was despatched to New York the day
following from Camp Pueblo Pasko, Sante Fé,
the expedition’s immediate base of operations in
New Mexico. The illustrations in this article
and the following are from photographs by Mr.
Nelson.— Tue Epitor.
are dry and lifeless and he conse-
quently deems the whole region a desert
waste incapable of supporting human
existence.
This estimate is only partially correct
however, for while the southwest is arid
and desert-like it is nevertheless far
from infertile. Natural oases exist in
this, as in other deserts, and artificial
oases can be and have been created and
maintained, from early aboriginal days
to the present. In this region the ruins
indicative of former life number tens
of thousands. Not only this but the
particular environmental conditions ob-
taining here, and which appear so un-
favorable, have produced, in a certain
sense, the highest type of native American
culture that we have within the limits
of the United States. In speaking of
the Southwest therefore, two outstand-
ing factors, viz., aridity and fertility,
must always be mentioned in conjunc-
tion. These two factors have wrought
389
Excavated rooms in another of the oldest sections of the San Pedro Viejo ruins.
the excavations is the ancient cornfield and farther on the Arroyo San Pedro.
San Pedro Mountains. View looking east
themselves deeply into the life and char-
acter of the native people and have
largely made them what they are.
Town-building in the Southwest had
its beginning in the distant past and
reached its climax before the arrival of
the white man. The first native settlers
(at least-in the northeastern section of
the pueblo area) who have left definite
traces of themselves, appear to have
lived in more or less thickly scattered
small houses of one or two rooms. Just
what relation these small-house dwellers
bore to later village dwellers is not yet
390
Directly beyond
In the distance are the
clear, except in so far as their general
mode of life appears to have been identi-
cal. The question as to what brought
about town-building is not easily an-
swered. One may be strongly inclined
to say that the Indian village (of which
there are several types) had its origin
in bare economic necessity. This as-
sertion cannot however entirely preclude
social and defensive considerations, and
so, if we are to be on safe ground, we must
allow credit to all three factors — eco-
‘nomic, defensive and social.
The particular type of pueblo studied
during the past three or
four years by the Muse-
um’s expedition to the
Rio Grande valley of
New Mexico includes
some of the largest an-
cient towns known in
the Southwest. The
ruins vary in size to be
sure but several of
them contain, or con-
tained, from five hun-
dred to three thousand
five hundred rooms and
more. The number of
their inhabitants can-
not be definitely esti-
mated, but judging
from the present-day
Indian villages, some of
which show a popula-
tion ranging from one
hundred to one thou-
sand seven hundred,
these ruins must in their
day have sheltered even
larger groups. These
towns-people were not,
as In our own modern
cities, great masses of
unorganized humanity,
continually competing
for a living at multifa-
rious pursuits. They
were rather closely or-
ganized coéperative so-
cieties, essentially com-
munistic.
The Indian’s needs
were few but those few
were imperative. In consequence of this
his activities were limited and corre-
spondingly intense. Agriculture was his
mainstay and good crops generally de-
pended on artificial watering. Under
such circumstances, one man being un-
able single-handed to maintain an irri-
Excavated section across a communal building at Pueblo Tunque,
showing the full width of six rooms.
good condition, but the rooms do not ordinarily show such regularity
in size and arrangement
The walls are of adobe and in
gation system, the natural outcome was
coéperation. Codéperation was similarly
necessary for purposes of defense against
the inroads of less provident neighbors;
for as there is no reason for supposing
these permanently settled agriculturists
to have been aggressive warriors, we
391
668
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394
must think that their safety lay in well-
organized defense. What more natural
therefore, than that they should have
coéperated in the planning and construc-
tion of large houses, capable of sheltering
every family or household of the group
and especially adapted for defense?
Large communal houses are frequently
found which must have been two to five
or more stories high and which contained
several hundred rooms. The majority
of the ruined villages contain a series of
these large houses, arranged on a quad-
rangular plan; this arrangement being
also, clearly, an element of defense.
In other words the typical village
finally evolved in the area under in-
vestigation by the Museum is suggestive
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
of our modern apartment-house cities
but differed from them in this funda-
mental respect; that the Indian built
his houses where our streets are and left
intervening blocks open, not for the sake
of light and air perhaps, but as places
for industrial and social activities.
That type of village is now practically
extinct. The Indian need no longer
guard himself against marauding neigh-
bors and the government stands ready
to help him with his irrigation projects.
Schooling has also had its effect on the
younger generation. The compact com-
munal settlements are breaking up and
the Pueblo Indian is returning once more
to the life in separate and scattered
houses like his ancient forefathers.
ro
ye
Excavated room in the San Pedro Viejo ruin, showing two bins and one fireplace — the latter set
into the floor; also some of the mealing stones and cooking slabs found in the debris
Excavated rooms at San Pedro Viejo, showing a human burial, also two pottery vessels set into the
floor for storage purposes
EXPLORATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST BY THE
AMERICAN MUSEUM
By Clark Wissler
HE Museum began in 1909 a
systematic investigation of the
native inhabitants in the great
romantic area known as the Southwest.
Of all localities in the United States
this is the richest in archeological re-
mains and the most conservative and
aboriginal tribes are found within its
borders. In the past, enough research
had been carried on in the Southwest to
make it clear that the magnitude and
complexity of the problems to be solved
were beyond the limits of the regular
resources of the Museum, and that it
would be unwise to take up work in that
part of the country until substantial
outside support could be found. In
1909 Mr. Archer M. Huntington offered
to give support to the undertaking.
Accordingly, the curator of anthro-
pology worked out a general plan, in
conformity with which the work has pro-
ceeded until now.
In the main this plan was to take up
the historical problem in the Southwest
to determine if possible the relations
between the prehistoric and_ historic
peoples. It was decided to concentrate
the Museum’s energies upon the Upper
Rio Grande Valley, because that seemed
395
Excavated rooms in Pueblo Tunque, showing connecting doorways, also a corner bin and a human
burial accompanied by two broken pottery vessels
Cross-section of an artificial dam at Pueblo San Cristobal. The Tano villages that were not by
nature supplied with sufficient water, possessed large reservoirs constructed by throwing a dam across
a shallow ravine in order to catch the rain and melting snow
396
Corrugated jar found in the corner of a room in
the oldest section of the San Pedro Viejo ruin.
Note the solid adobe floor on level with the top
of the vessel but dug away except at the rear
most likely to have been the chief center
of Pueblo culture as we now know it, and
because there were to be found there
numerous ruins which according to
Bandelier, belonged to the immediate
ancestors of the living people. The
studies of the living races were to in-
clude not only the sedentary natives of
the Rio Grande Valley, but also the less
sedentary people of the same area, in
particular the various groups of Apache
and the Navajo. It was contemplated
that when the historical problem in this
particular area had been brought to a
fair completion, the work would be
extended westward into Arizona so as
gradually to unravel the historical puzzle
of the Southwest. While this was a
very ambitious undertaking, the reports
of our several field parties! show that
1 Schedule of Field-Work, 1909-1915:
1909 — Dr. P. E. Goddard first began work
among the Apache of Arizona and New Mexico
and Dr. H. J. Spinden began his investigation of the
Rio Grande Pueblo peoples. Dr. Clark Wissler
spent a considerable part of this year and 1910 ina
general survey of the field to the end that more
systematic detailed plans might be developed.
1910 — Dr. Goddard continued work among
the Apache tribes and the Navajo and Dr. Spinden
continued the investigation of the Rio Grande
pueblos. Miss M. L. Kissell made a special
investigation of the textile arts among the Papago
and Pima tribes.
Excavated room at Pueblo Tunque, showing a
small enclosure framed with stone slabs and with-
in which a meiate is fixed in place for grinding
maize ia Te
1911 — Dr. Goddard made a special investiga-
tion of the Kiowa-Apache; Dr. Spinden con-
tinued his work among the Rio Grande pueblos.
1912 — Dr. Wissler made a second general
survey of the field especially in connection with
the contemplated archeological work by Mr. N.
C. Nelson. Mr. Nelson made a general surface
survey of the whole Rio Grande Valley from El
Paso north, and later in the season began the
systematic investigation of pueblos in the Galisteo
Basin. This included the thorough excavation
of Pueblo Kotyiti, a site whose history was fully
known but which had been in ruins for more than
two hundred years. Dr. Spinden continued his
work among the Rio Grande pueblos.
1913 — Dr. Spinden completed his work among
the Rio Grande pueblos. Mr. Nelson continued
his archeological work in the Galisteo Basin. :
1914 — Dr. Goddard was again investigating
the Apache and was accompanied by Mr. Howard
McCormick to secure sketches and photographic
material for exhibition purposes. Mr. Nelson
continued excavations in the Galisteo Basin.
1915 — Professor A. L. Kroeber of the Uni-
versity of California volunteered to spend the
summer at Zuni Pueblo where he secured a large
collection for our exhibition halls and made a
special study of Zuni social organization, and in
addition gathered data on the ruins in the vicinity
397
398
very substantial progress has been made
in the solution of the problem, and that
in so far as the Rio Grande Basin is
concerned, a definite conclusion has been
attained.
As the work now stands the ethno-
logical survey of the Rio Grande vil-
lages (by Dr. Herbert J. Spinden) has
been nearly completed. In this work
especial attention was given to material
culture and art, since these are the two
phases of culture that survive and leave
their indices in archeological collections.
Investigation of the less sedentary
peoples (by Dr. Pliny E. Goddard) has
from which a chronological or historical classifica-
tion of them can be made. Dr. Robert L. Lowie
visited the Hopi pueblos to study their social
organization and_ relationship systems. The
specific problem here is to see whether any im-
portant Shoshonean traits of culture still survive
among the Hopi, since they are a Shoshone-
speaking people, Mr. Nelson again worked in the
Galisteo Basin and made surface surveys south-
westward to the vicinity of Zuni. In co6dperation
with the University of Colorado an expedition
among the cliff ruins of Southern Colorado was
carried on.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
progressed satisfactorily so that we now
have fairly complete studies for several
divisions of the Apache. It remains for
the future to extend the work to the
Navajo. The archeological work (by
Mr. N. C. Nelson) was begun in 1912
and as far as the northern part of the
Rio Grande Valley is concerned is now
nearly complete. The net result of this
work has been to make clear the chrono-
logical relations of the various ruins in
the vicinity, which in turn enables us to
determine their historic relation to the
living peoples.
It is planned that the work shall con-
tinue more intensively during the next
few years than heretofore, since the way
is now clear to a chronological classifica-
tion of many groups of ruins. Thou-
sands of dollars have been contributed to
unearth the ancient civilizations of Egypt
and the East, while here within our very
borders are crumbling ruins of a past
that has an intimate relation to our
national history.
Image of a ‘‘panther,”’ sculptured in volcanic tufa, found lying in the center of a ruined circular
shrine on top of Potrero de los Idolos, a short distance west of the Rio Grande and the Tano habitat
proper, ‘The shrine is said to be still visited by the Indians of Pueblo Cochiti whose ancestors are
supposed to have built the place
ANIMALS OF BLOWN GLASS
By Herman O. Mueller
HE technique of glass-blowing is
many sided and allows con-
struction of intricate and truth-
ful models from life, of animals as well
as of plants such as the famed Harvard
glass flowers. The invention of the
blowpipe at the early date of the first
century before Christ, opened up an era
for glass-modeling. In the process pre-
vious to that time molten glass or “ glass
paste” had been molded free-hand over
a clay form, which could be easily re-
moved after the glass cooled.
The blowpipe consists of an iron tube
Ba ee wen Naps atte
ee
-
by
The blast lamp is an essential part of the
equipment, but the trained eye and hand of
the worker are his most important tools
about one and one-half inches long and
one and one-fifth inches in diameter,
with the aid of which the glass paste
is blown to the desired shape. The
mechanical tools which the glass-blower
uses have always been very simple and
relatively unimportant, but the natural
instruments — the eye and the hand of
the worker — are of the greatest signifi-
cance.
The most important instrument in
glass-blowing is the blast lamp. This
is a very simple affair and consists of
a brass tube about three-quarters of
an inch in diameter and three to four
inches long, into which a smaller tube is
inserted. The larger tube supplies the
gas and the smaller one the air. The
relative quantity of gas and air is regu-
lated by means of cocks attached to the
tubes. A steady air pressure to increase
the heat intensity of the flame is created
by means of bellows, or still better by a
compressed-air pump.
In early times an oil lamp was used
in this apparatus, and the name “lampen
arbeiter’’ was applied to the users to
distinguish them from the workers in
the glass factories. In some of the
European glass-blowing districts the oil
lamp is still used for glass-blowing. The
gas lamp however is of course far supe-
rior. It naturally produces a consider-
ably more powerful flame, and_ this
makes possible the modeling of much
larger objects. Other tools for glass-
modeling are forceps of various shapes,
scissors, carbon and iron pencils of differ-
ent sizes and forms, and files. The
forceps are used for handling the separate
pieces of glass while being welded; the
scissors are used for cutting away the
superfluous glass; the carbon and iron
399
400
pencils for widening the openings in
glass tubes or finished parts, and the
g I
files for cutting glass tubes and rods.
No iron molds of any kind are used for
preparing glass models in the American
Museum, but all parts are shaped free-
hand from glass tubes and rods. Colored
5
glass is frequently used for the colored
§ 1 :
parts, but if the desired tints and shades
of glass are not available, plain crystal
glass is molded into shape and the colors
g I
applied later with the brush or with an
air-brush.
The process of using glass as a medium
for representing animals will be realized
Stages illustrating the modeling in glass of the microscopic
animal Gonium.
These little, single-celled creatures live in colonies of sixteen
together, and there may be very many such colonies in a drop of
water
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
in some degree if we follow the construc-
tion of a glass model — for example,
that of a colony of the protozoan Gonium.
From a glass tube of about one-half inch
diameter, a piece about two inches long
is separated by means of the blast lamp,
blown in the flame to a cuplike shape
and opened out to its whole width at
one The gas flame is brought
into action on the opening and the force
of the flame will by itself enlarge the
opening; but if the carbon pencil is
rotated inside the heated area at the top
of the cup this will flange it out more
quickly.
end.
To imitate the coloring
seen in the living Goniwm
individual, which seems to
shade from a deep green
below to a light, almost
transparent tint above,
hundreds of little green
glass particles are welded
to the inner surface of the
glass cup before it is wid-
ened out, until the desired
tints are secured. To do
this a green-colored glass
rod is broken up into small
pieces and these are further
ground in a mortar to the
desired grain. A_ small
quantity of these particles
is strewn inside the cup
which is then rotated in the
gas flame until the green
parts begin to fuse and ad-
here to the wall of the cup.
This process is repeated
until the desired intensity
of the color is secured.
When the green particles
are applied thickly the color
ismoreintense; when scat-
tered, a lighter tint results.
After this the other parts
of the animal such as nu-
ANIMALS OF BLOWN GLASS
cleus, vacuoles and chromatophores, are
fashioned separately from small tubes
or solid rods of colored glass and fast-
ened within the cup. The nucleus is
blown from a small green glass tube
into a hollow ball about one-quarter
inch in diameter. One end is cut open
for inserting the nucleolus which has
been previously shaped from a green
rod into a little solid bead.
darker color than the tube used for the
nucleus. To the solid bead,
nucleolus, a short glass stem is attached
This is of a
or the
by which it is to be supported within the
hollow ball. When the nucleolus is in-
serted into the ball, a little spot of the
shell of this ball is heated and the sup-
port of the nucleolus is fused to the wall
of this shell. Then the opening of the
shell is covered with enough hot glass
to close it, and the nucleus is completed.
The vacuoles are blown in the same
manner as the nucleus, only they are of
crystal glass and consist of only one
shell. Nucleus and vacuoles have little
stems attached to them by which they
are fastened in the cup. The supports
are placed where they will show least.
After all the parts are ready to be
inserted in the cup, one after the other,
they are held in place by the forceps, a
small area of the outer wall of the cup is
heated and the supports of the parts are
fused to the inner cup wall. When this
is done, the cup is closed by heating the
glass around the rim opening and draw-
ing it together until a rough closing is
obtained. The superfluous glass which
forms in this manipulation, is pulled
1 Radiolaria are tiny, one-celled animals which
possess the faculty of extracting silica from sea
water and forming with it skeletal structures to
protect their soft, jelly-like body. They are
found in both fresh and salt water, particularly
the latter, and are usually microscopic, but giants
among them may attain the size of a pin’s head.
There may be very many in a single drop of sea
water, especially in the warmer seas, and they
exhibit great variety of form
401
Early stage in the modeling of a simple radio-
larian !
away little by little, and the resulting
unevenness of the surface is smoothed
out by reheating the closed portion and
blowing several times through the hol-
402
low handle at the
base of the cup. The
air blown through
the handle expands
the heated glass and
rounds off the cup.
Then two short glass
stumps (to which
later flagelle are to
be attached)
fused to the top.
Finally the point at
the lower end where
the cup was attached
to the original tube,
are
is melted off and a
short glass stem to
serve later for the
concealed = attach-
ment is fastened in
its place, but a little
laria harrimani.
to one side of the
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Model representing a highly magnified specimen of the hydrozoan? Tubu-
Welding the fine, threadlike cilia involves great difficulty;
a very little careless manipulation will cause the blast lamp to mow down
axis. Following this whole areas of them
a somewhat larger
cup is made and the finished closed cup
is inserted into it, the outer cup is in
2 Hydrozoa are stationary, jelly-like animals
which attach themselves to fixed or floating ob-
jects and feed on the marine organisms which come
within reach of their waving tentacles. Many of
these creatures are microscopic and many live at-
tached to one another in colonies. Many of these
latter may be seen in the wharf-pile group at the
American Museum
Glass model of a jelly fish forming part of the wharf-pile group in the Darwin Hall of the American
Museum. The two squids shown in the picture and the colonial hydrozoa attached to the wharf-pile
are also fashioned in glass
Usually the glass models are made with constant reference to the actual animal under the micro-
scope, but in the case of this rare specimen of radiolarian very carefully made drawings, plates and
diagrams only were available. A complicated model sometimes takes two or three months to construct
Model of another radiolarian, highly magnified. When these minute organisms die their skeletons
collect on the sea bottom forming a siliceous ooze. The island of Barbados, an elevation of the sea
bottom, consists very largely of this radiolarian ooze and Barbados earth is used by jewellers for grinding
and polishing
403
404
its turn closed and rounded off, and to
this finally the two whiplike flagellz are
attached. These are first drawn out
from a glass rod into straight threads
about the thickness of a fine needle,
and then are curved by passing the
glass threads through the flame sev-
eral times in different directions. Now
the glass stem retained at the lower
end of the outside cup for a handle, is
cut off short to serve as a concealed sup-
port for attachment to the final mount.
Models for the other fifteen individuals
composing the colony are now con-
structed in the same way and arranged
on the mount in their proper places —
and the model is complete.
The model of the radiolarian further
illustrates methods of glass-modeling.
From a solid glass rod one-quarter inch
in diameter, nine smaller rods are fash-
ioned each about one-eighth inch in
diameter and about four inches long.
These are somewhat bent and attached
at equal distances to the rim of a per-
forated cup previously blown to repre-
sent the skeleton of the central capsule.
In this way the principal framework of
the skeleton is prepared. In order to
give it greater stability during the work,
slender glass supports are welded tem-
porarily to the lower ends of the rods.
Then beginning at the central capsule
small glass rods are welded horizontally
to connect the larger elements of the
skeleton, until finally the whole network
is completed as shown in the figure of
the finished model.
Many protozoa are beset with count-
less hairs or cilia, and in representing
these the welding of such closely set, fine
structures on the models involves great
difficulty. Even on models represent-
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
ing great magnification these ciliafare
often so fine that a little careless’ smanipu-
lation with the blast lamp will cause
whole areas of the heated cilia to col-
lapse, mowed down like grass before the
mower’s scythe.
Although molten glass may i brought
into hundreds of different shapes, never-
theless the methods of blowing are
always practically the same. It is the
setting together of the separate parts
however which requires great care and
alertness, for when once the parts are
wrongly joined they can be corrected
only with difficulty or not at all, and it
is usually necessary to reconstruct the
entire piece from the beginning.
In many cases, where several parts
are welded together, the finished struc-
ture must be thoroughly annealed.
This is best done by greatly diminishing
the air pressure in the blast lamp, when
the glass parts are rotated steadily for
some time in the smoke and flame of
the weakened jet. This is necessary
because in working the glass for a long
time, alternately thinner and _ thicker
places will occur. These produce an
uneven tension and the glass will break
if it is not carefully annealed.
As mentioned above the methods of
glass blowing are very simple. Only
skill in the worker is necessary to pro-
duce the most diverse shapes from the
molten material. In order to attain
this skill, years of training for hand and
eye are necessary. The calling of the
glass-blower so to speak is an inheri-
tance from antiquity. The sons grow
up to the father’s trade and devote
themselves from early youth to the ac-
quisition of the all-important feeling
and skill.
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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM’S REPTILE GROUPS IN
RELATION TO HIGH SCHOOL BIOLOGY
By George W. Hunter
Chief of Biology, DeWitt Clinton High School, New York City
é
HE concept of “adaptation to
environment” is one of the
most difficult to teach pupils
of high school age, whereas it is one of
the most valuable from the civic stand-
point.! Particularly is this true of New
1The DeWitt Clinton High School of New
York City has classes in biology each year
containing between two and three thousand
young men. The American Book Company has
recently published a small volume by Mr.
Hunter on civic biology for high schools, from
which the following is quoted. The quotation
gives a glimpse of the aim of the work: ‘‘ Field
{and Museum] trips, when properly organized
and later used as a basis for discussion in the
class room, make a firm foundation on which
to build the superstructure of a course in
biology. The normal environment, its relation
York City boys and girls, because of
their lack of previous knowledge of the
to the artificial environment of the city, the
relations of mutual give and take existing be-
tween plants and animals, are better shown by
field and museum trips than in any other way.”
_...'*Many of us live in the city, where the
crowded streets, the closely packed apartments
and the city playgrounds form our environment.
It is very artificial at best. ... We must remember
that in learning something of the natural environ-
ment of other living creatures we may better
understand our own environment and our rela-
tion to it.’’....‘‘The physiological functions of
plants and animals, the hygiene of the individual
within the community, conservation and the bet-
terment of existing plant and animal products,
the big underlying biological concepts {such as
adaptation] on which society is built, have all been
used [in the book] to the end that the pupil will
become a better, stronger and more unselfish
citizen.’’— Editor.
405
406
factors of the normal outdoor environ-
ment of plants and animals. This, it
seems, is true to a degree of any city
child, but it is especially noticeable
in the children of the lower congested
portions of our great city, with its com-
plex artificial environment and its abso-
lute lack of normal relations existing
between plants and animals in nature.
To an increasing degree therefore,
the American Museum has come to play
an important part in filling in and round-
ing out certain biological concepts as
taught in our secondary school courses
in this city. Not only is the Museum
fulfilling its “big brother” capacity
through sending out its loan collections
of hygiene charts, its bird and insect
collections, but also within its walls it
has several valuable collections and
groups which are of very great direct
service to those of us who are near
enough to use them for laboratory exer-
cises. The hygiene exhibit, with its
striking moral of public and private
sanitation and hygiene, applies directly
and indeed constantly, in its many-
sided relationship, to the biological prob-
lems as taught in a city high school.
The Darwin hall, with its synoptic col-
lections, enables the older pupils in
advanced high school courses to obtain
the meaning of evolutionary series, vari-
ation and the struggle for existence.
The bird, reptile and amphibian groups
are of especial value to the high school
pupil and teacher because of the clear
text illustrating adaptations.
All the readers of the JOURNAL are
doubtless familiar with the habitat
bird groups and the no less beautiful
bullfrog group. But not all perhaps, are
aware of the new toad group, which
with its neighbors, the bullfrog, giant
salamander and desert lizard groups,
lies modestly hidden in the black re-
cesses of the alcove on the second floor.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Those of us who know Miss Dickerson’s
Frog Book and its value, recognize at
once the authoritative effectiveness of
this series of groups.
The new toad group breathes the very
atmosphere of spring, with its opening
buds and apple blooms. A tiny pool,
spring-fed, close to the broken-down
stone wall, the tangle of shrubs, under-
growth and cat brier, the spring flowers —
violets, adder’s-tongue, cowslip — and
the warblers perched on shrub and tree,
mark the time of year. The chief value
of the group, from the standpoint of the
teacher of biology, lies in the amphibian
life that it contains, and the usefulness
of these types in demonstrating the idea
of adaptation to environment.
In the right-hand corner of the group
may be found numerous specimens of our
common tree frog (Hyla versicolor). I
say numerous with intention, because
at each successive visit to this group I
have found at least one more specimen,
tucked away in some inconspicuous
place and blending perfectly with its
surroundings. What better material
could we ask for the study of the adapta-
tion illustrated by protective coloration?
(And thisin spite of the Neo-Darwinians!)
Toward the back and at the left are
found examples of Fowler’s toad, one of
our two common toads. Its life history
is suggested in the egg strings, fresh laid
at the first of May, and the adults, which
we know in connection with gardens
and dry land, also in the water. On
the opposite side of the group is seen the
larger and browner American toad and
its tiny black tadpoles; for this toad
lays its eggs about two weeks earlier
than the Fowler’s toad.
It is unnecessary to tell a teacher that
in order to have a successful field or
museum trip, he must first visit the
locality, pick out the salient points of
interest and work out a series of con-
REPTILE GROUPS IN AMERICAN MUSEUM
nected questions. These questions must
be so arranged that the groups of students
taking the trip will be scattered with the
focus of work at several centers. The
reptile and frog alcove is quite an ideal
place for a laboratory exercise because the
children taken there may be scattered at
work on the several groups and at the
same time be near enough to come under
the direct supervision of the teacher in
charge. The outline which follows will
serve to indicate the use that one teacher
has made of this alcove and will also illus-
trate one of the several perhaps equally
good methods of working out such a
museum trip for the large classes found
in the high schools of this city.
Museum TRIP TO VISIT THE FROG AND
Toap GRouUPS IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM
or Naturaut History
Purpose of the trip —To study adapta-
tions to environment.
Directions — Begin work at one of the two
groups on which questions follow. Read
the labels in front of each group and learn
all you can about what the group contains
before you begin to answer the questions.
Then answer the following, making the
answers tell a connected story for your note-
book. Ask questions of your teacher only
when you cannot find the answer yourself.
Questions for Study of the Toad Group
1 — What time of year does it seem to be?
How do you know?
2 — What wild flowers are most abundant
at this time in this locality?
3 — What animals are found living in the
water? On the land or in the trees?
Is any kind of animal living both on land
and in the water? What are such ani-
mals called? (Amphi = both)
4 — Look for specimens of the tree frog
(Hyla versicolor) at the right-hand side
of the group. Describe three different
phases of color in these frogs. How are
changes of color in the nature of adapta-
tions?
5 — Describe where and tell when toads
lay their eggs. (Look in the right-center
of the group.)
407
6 — Compare the egg masses of the toad
with those of the frogs. (Note left center
of the toad group for eggs of the green
frog.) How are the eggs protected?
7 — Enumerate all the enemies of a toad
seen in this group and tell how the toad
is fitted (adapted) to escape from each
of these enemies.
8 — Mention three structural adaptations
found in a toad or frog which fit it for the
life it leads. Explain exactly how each
structure you have described is an adap-
tation.
Questions for Study of the Bullfrog Group
1 — Show three ways not mentioned in the
last question in which the bullfrog is
fitted or adapted to its environment.
2— How do you account for the large
size of the tadpoles in the frog group?
How is this long life of the tadpole of
interest to the man raising frogs for
market?
3 — What are some of the enemies of the
bullfrog? How might it escape from its
enemies?
4 — Explain exactly how a frog catches an
insect. (See left-hand side of group.)
5 — Compare the habitat of the bullfrog
with that of other amphibians found in
the groups in this alcove. How is it
fundamentally like the others and how
does it differ?
Similar questions might be worked
out for the lizard and salamander
groups. Doubtless other teachers have
worked out questions; a collection and
compilation of such questions would be
of value to those of us visiting the Mu-
seum frequently. All of us who now
work in the Museum with our classes
agree that the work we do there is yet
in its very beginning. Its possibilities
are almost limitless and with the splen-
did codperation of the Museum authori-
ties which we have had in the past,
the future scope of Museum use by
high school pupils and teachers will
only be limited by the proximity of the
Museum to the classroom or the willing-
ness of the teacher to codperate with the
Museum authorities.
SOF
SoAvO] Jopre pue sped ATI] JU9TNOONS oY} UO Pas PUL UIvAI4S OY} UL ope OF OFT] YOM ‘UOIsed 4B} JO Joop VIUISITA oY} AQ poquonboay Youur
SyOepUOIIPY oY} UI Weeds AQuULYY o[suIYS uo 4ods ¥ sjuEseIdor ‘dno1s s,WIMesnA[ 9} JO PuNoIsyoVq oY} WIOJ 04 yjorpuvig AvueyMOoH “ay Aq opeur ‘sutured oy,L
* dnoydS Yagaq HO4 AGNLS GNNOYDMOVE
ne
Leaving camp on the way to the salt-lick.
[From motion-picture film]
HUNTING DEER IN THE ADIRONDACKS !
By Roy Chapman Andrews
OR eight miles through the Brand-
reth Preserve in the Adiron-
dacks, Shingle Shanty stream
follows a winding, twisting course, at last
losing itself in Lake Lila. Everywhere
the stream is beautiful, its dark water, as
a perfect mirror, reflecting the balsams,
pines and feathery tamaracks of the
virgin forest. Dark green alders form a
thick curtain on
either bank, some-
times giving place
to small, grassy
meadows but clos-
ing In again as the
stream narrows, to
lock hands across
the water.
During midsum-
mer when the blaz-
ing sun has dried
the woods and the
air is fragrant with
the scent of balsam, deer wade into the
stream to feed upon the succulent lily
in the ground.
picture film]
pads and grass which choke its course.
1 Through the courtesy of Colonel Franklin
Brandreth and Mr. Frederick Potter, the Museum
was granted the privilege of securing on their
preserve at Brandreth Lake the specimens and
accessories for a group of Virginia Deer. The
Museum is also indebted to Mr. Courtenay
Brandreth for the background study, a photo-
graph of which is here reproduced.
The ‘‘blind’’ at the salt-lick.
bag, kept.open by a spread umbrella supported
This is where Mr. Andrews
lay in wait with the camera.
Our tents were pitched on a curve of
the stream in a grove of spruce and
balsams, where we had a clear view for
two hundred yards up the broad path
of water to a ragged'sky line cut by the
pointed summits of pines and tamaracks.
I shall never forget the first night in
camp at the close of a perfect day.
When the yellow rays of the lowering
sun shot deeply in-
to the forest the
hermit thrushes be-
gan their evening
song, every liquid,
flutelike note clear-
cut and wonder-
fully anuisi es)
against the back-
ground of perfect
stillness. As the
light dimmed, one
A huge, green
[From motion- by one the thrushes
ceased, leaving only
the voices of a few “whitethroats”
sleepily calling to one another from the
alders across the stream. Then the stars
came out, low and brilliant in the clear
air, and in the night our tent glowed
from the light within like a great golden
pumpkin in the forest.
The next morning work began. At
daylight we were in the canoe, stealing
409
Flashlight picture of two does at the salt-lick in the forest.
The salt was placed in an old tree trunk
a month before the advent of the hunters, so that the deer had become accustomed to going there
Our camp on Shingle Shanty stream in the Adirondacks
noiselessly down the stream, hugging
the bank on the open stretches and
shooting swiftly around the narrow
curves, hoping to catch a deer in the
water feeding on the lily pads. I sat
in front with the motion-picture camera
on the very bow and a rifle by my side,
but the work was not very evenly divided
410
for my wife in the stern was responsible
for all the paddling.
We were out seven hours but it was a
morning of disappointments for, from a
heavy rain two days before, the water
everywhere covered the grass and other
vegetation growing in the stream. Sev-
eral times deer crashed in the bushes
HUNTING DEER IN THE ADIRONDACKS
beside us but we could not see through
the leafy wall of alders. It was evident
that, until the water lowered, work on
the stream was useless, so we next tried
a “salt lick’? above camp. A month
before we came, Courtenay Brandreth
had filled an old log half full of salt and
it was now so torn and pawed that the
story was there for all to read.
The lick lay in a lovely spot beside
the water under two splendid pine trees,
This little doe returned again and again,
insatiably curious to solve the mystery of the
camera. She was always easily frightened how-
ever, and it took ten hours of crouching in the
blind to obtain the film
411
In the
bushes across the stream we concealed
veritable castles in the air.
one of Dr. Chapman’s bird blinds, which
consists of a huge green bag kept open
by a spread umbrella supported in the
ground. Inside we placed the motion-
picture camera and settled ourselves on
two camp stools with books and a rifle.
All the afternoon we waited, kept in a
fever of excitement by a deer which
snorted and stamped in the forest behind
the alders.
Startled by the whir of the hidden motion-
picture camera, she stood for only a few sec-
among
onds. [From motion-picture film]
Off to cover. This series of five photographs
from the motion-picture film represents only
one-sixth of a second in action
412
the lick but was too suspicious to come
to the water. The next day there was
better luck and for ten hot, breathless
hours we sat in the bushes, fighting
mosquitoes and “punkies” but thrilled
by the picture before us.
We had reached the “blind” at six
o'clock in the morning and it was eight
before anything happened; then sud-
denly there came a soft swashing in the
water below. A deer was wading slowly
up the stream and as its head appeared
around a clump of alders, not ten feet
away, I started the camera. With a
snort of surprise the animal dashed up
the bank into the woods. It was a two
year old doe out on an early morning
ramble, and I was sure she had been so
badly frightened that we would not see
her again that day. Her curiosity, how-
ever, counterbalanced her fear and half
an hour later, with a few nervous snorts
and much stamping of her pretty feet,
she ventured down the hill toward the
old log. When the whir of the camera
sounded like an angry rattlesnake from
the bushes she stood for a few seconds,
but suddenly lost heart and whirled
away into the forest, her white tail
frantically waving in the air.
Again and again she returned, drawn
by insatiable curiosity, but never to
stand longer than twenty or thirty
seconds. We sat in the blind for ten
hours, cramped and hot and fly-bitten,
and at the end had not more than sixty
feet of film, but the excitement of the day
had been immeasurable; I learned too
that it would be pretty hard to kill a
deer, for watching the little doe had
suddenly made it sickening to think of
snuffing out its life with a bullet.
Several more days were spent at the
blind with success only from the picture
standpoint, but every day the stream
was becoming more nearly normal and
we hoped for results within a week.
Then on the night of July 20 the heavens
opened and for three hours the rain fell
in torrents. The sheer weight of pound-
ing water threatened to tear our tent in
shreds, but the silk had withstood
tropical storms of equal violence and we
spent a comfortable night when the roar
outside had ceased. The next morning
the stream was almost in our camp,
which the guides had said was well be-
yond the reach of summer freshets. All
day the water rose, but we had carried
our food and blankets to higher ground
and for a week remained in an open camp
a few hundred yards away.
It was useless to think of work upon
the streams or ponds for at least a fort-
night, because the woods were so soaked
with water that the deer had moved to
higher ground. We hunted diligently
but the never-ceasing rain was a serious
handicap and not until mid-August did
I shoot a buck suitable for the group;
a doe and fawn were secured a week
later.
It was a labor of love to select a
spot for the background of the group,
for almost any curve of the stream was
a picture in itself. With Mr. Courtenay
Brandreth who had volunteered to make
the field painting, we paddled up and
down discussing the possibilities of
every portion and, as the artist, he finally
selected an open stretch, where on one
side the alders gave place to a grassy
meadow with the blue summit of Albany
mountain far in the distance. ,'At this
very spot a few days later as the canoe
slipped around the curve, we surprised
three does feeding in the stream and a
fourth upon the bank. For a moment
they stared at us but, as the camera
began to whir, in great leaps they dashed
for the friendly cover of the alders only
to stop a few yards within the forest to
blow and stamp in protest at the in-
terruption of their breakfast.
September was ushered in by the dry,
hot weather we had hoped for all sum-
mer — just when our work had been com-
pleted and it was time to start for home.
Doe, startled by the sound of the camera,
plunging frantically into the forest. [From
motion-picture film]
413
414
But the last few days were full of fever-
ish excitement, for the stream swarmed
with deer driven to the water by the
heat and the flies.
One morning we “jumped”’ five does
The first
was at the end of a long lane of water,
in almost as many minutes.
all but her head submerged, feeding on
the tender alder leaves which dipped
low toward the surface. We were in
full view before it was possible to swing
in toward the shore, but my wife sent
the canoe forward so noiselessly that the
deer continued to feed undisturbed.
Suddenly she saw us and dashed in
great leaps down the stream and around
the bend.
A few hundred yards farther on there
was a deep pool enclosed by alders, but
edged with succulent grass. As we
neared the spot, I saw a circle of ripples
spreading out beneath the bushes and
knew that a deer must be on the ether
At a signal my wife dug her
side.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
paddle into the mud sending us spinning
around the curve. There was the deer
sure enough, a big doe with her mouth
full of hhes. I started the camera just
as she snorted and plunged forward into
the pool. In a second she was beyond
her depth and swimming frantically, her
big ears waving back and forth and a
long streamer of grass from her mouth
trailing astern. It was only a moment
before she struck the soft bank on the
other side and with two or three mad
plunges threw her dripping body into
the alders.
The week was full of incidents such
as these, and it was with a good deal of
regret that we broke camp on a hot
Thursday to spend our last three: days
at the Lake with Colonel Brandreth.
We had been there many times during
the summer, often wet and tired and
discouraged, but always to find a warm
welcome from every inmate of “Camp
Good-Enough.”
NEWS FROM THE CROCKER LAND EXPEDITION
THE EXPEDITION AT ETAH AND THE “CLUETT” AT NORTH STAR BAY
BOTH TO WINTER IN THE ARCTIC
[With quotations from letters from the Arctic|
S announced at the time in the
A New York City papers a cable-
gram was received at the Mu-
seum on November 10, from Mr. Knud
Rasmussen, Copenhagen, regarding the
Crocker Land expedition. This gave
the news of the failure of the “Cluett”’
to reach Etah where she was to have
taken on the members of the expedition
for return to civilization. The Museum
did not give up hope of the return of the
“Cluett”’ and the expedition to New
York this fall until the very end of
November. It is now believed however
that both the original expedition under
Mr. Donald B. MacMillan and the ship
with Dr. E. O. Hovey and Captain
George Comer sent to bring this expedi-
tion home, have been forced to winter
in the Arctic, the expedition staff at
Etah, the “Cluett” in North Star Bay.
Both parties are well equipped with
supplies and with every convenience
for scientific work, so there can be no
fear as to the safety of the parties, their
comparative comfort and proficable sci-
entific results from the enforced stay.
The cablegram is given below:
Mail from Crocker Land _ expedition
arrived and delivered your [American]
Embassy. ‘“Cluett”’ arrived North Star Bay
twelfth September after thirty-five days ice
hindrances and motor damage Melville Bay.
Dared not go to Etah account autumn ice but
kept near our station, while our missionary
motor boat left for Etah to fetch expedition
members to ‘‘Cluett.’’ All well.
[Signed] Knup RasmMuSSEN.
A letter supplementing this cable
arrived ‘later from Mr. Rasmussen in
which he says:
Our own ship “Kap-York”’ has not yet
arrived [at’ Copenhagen]. When it arrives,
probably early in December, I expect to be
able to supplement this letter with details
obtained from my captain. The ‘ Kap-
York” being obliged to proceed southward
[from North Star Bay] under sail only, had
to be tugged out of the harbor before our
motor boat could be sent northward, and so
we have no recent news of your expedition.
The following is a quotation from a
letter written by Mr. Donald B. Mac-
Millan at Etah, North Greenland, on
April 6, 1915, and received in New York
on December 3, forwarded from Copen-
hagen by the American Embassy:
Mail received a few days ago tells of the
European war and the terrible loss of life.
It is said communication with Denmark
is uncertain so you may not receive this
letter for some time. We realize that affairs
at home must be very unsettled making it
doubly hard to secure a suitable ship at a
reasonable price to transport the expedition
to America. Naturally the boys are very
anxious to get home and would be disap-
pointed if a ship failed to arrive, but if such
should happen, do not be a bit alarmed over
our safety; we can pull through all right.
The season is a very hard one here for the
Eskimo. Within the memory of the oldest
there has never been sucha year. They have
eaten their dogs as the only food available
and burned their sledges for fuel. It is
possible to sledge even to the Cary Islands,
something which has never been done before.
The expedition will put in caches at six
different points on the Greenland coast for
the return of Ekblaw! from his trip of the
next two months. The last cache will be
at. Cape Constitution, two hundred and
twenty-five miles north of Etah. This work
will lead us over Dr. Kane’s whole trail.and
will yield some unusually interesting photo-
1 Mr. W. Elmer Ekblaw, geologist and botanist.
415
416
graphs such as of Humboldt Glacier. I am
confident that there are many records at
Kane’s winter quarters at Rensselear Harbor.
We shall also do bird work one hundred and
thirty miles south of Etah on Saunders
Island, one of the most interesting spots of
the world to the ornithologist.
We are mainly O. K. in health. Green
and Allen? built a little shack last fall for
wireless at one of the islands in the outer
harbor. Conditions out there were so favor-
able for reading and study that they preferred
to remain through the winter, both claiming
they had lots of work to do and that was
the place to do it. When they came into the
house however the first of February, both
were in poor health. Later Green started
out to cross the channel to go to our big
cache in Hayes Sound and broke down com-
pletely. He returned, went to bed and was
put on a diet under doctor’s orders. He is
apparently all right now but not yet fit for a
long trip. Allen is wholly recovered. Tan-
quary ? had the misfortune to freeze both big
toes on his Melville Bay trip during the
winter. The doctor hopes that an operation
will not be necessary. If a ship reaches us
and Ekblaw does not stay with me, I may be
landed over in Jones Sound with one Eskimo.
Here I shall remain one year for ethnological
work, and sledge from here to the northern
coast of America.
Mr. W. Elmer Ekblaw writes on
March 20, 1915, also from Etah, as
follows:
On the eve of my departure on a trip across
Ellesmere Land and back across Grant and
Grinnell lands by way of Greely Fjord and
Lake Hazen, I am writing you briefly of my
hopes and plans. Since last winter I have
been arranging to take this trip this spring.
I shall leave to-morrow fully and splendidly
equipped, not able to think of a single addi-
tional article or preparation which would
further insure my safety and success. I
have the best sledge we have yet made; I
have a fine team of dogs; my clothes are all
first-class; I have all the food and fuel I can
1 Ensign Fitzhugh Green, engineer and physi-
cist; Mr. Jerome Lee Allen, electrician and wire-
less operator.
2 Mr. Maurice C. Tanquary, zodlogist.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
carry; I am in the best of health and best
condition for Arctic work; I have two of the
best men in the tribe, Esayoo and Etukashoo,
to accompany me. I can conceive of nothing
except a most untoward accident that could
prevent the successful execution of my plans
and my safe return.
I shall proceed leisurely enough to tal.e
advantage of every likelihood of scientific
investigation; to hunt food for dogs and
ourselves in every favorable locality; to
explore the unknown reaches of Greely
Fjord. JI am depending so largely upon the
game of the country over which we travel for
the chief food supply, that I am taking
across the Ellesmere Land glacier but twelve
days’ pemmican. I feel that I am quite
justified in doing so, for on a 1100-mile
circuitous route, it is impossible to carry
food for the entire way.
I expect to study the geology of Bay
Fjord very carefully. The Eskimo tell me
of numerous coal seams of great thickness and
rocks rich in fossils. Green saw a coal seam
eighteen feet thick on his trip of last year,
and from the point from which I was forced
to return I saw great ledges and cliffs of lime-
stones, shales and sandstones. The physiog-
raphy, structural geology, and I hope pale-
ontological and stratigraphical geology will
merit all the attention I can give them.
The early part of my trip will of necessity
be confined largely to geology, for the snow
covers the vegetation and no birds have yet
arrived. From the first of May onward,
I expect to get some work in botany and
ornithology. I find that I have more than
one hundred and ten different species of
plants in the collections I made last year.
I wish to say of Tanquary, who had an
unfortunate trip on Melville Bay, that he is
made of the stuff heroes grow from, and that
for sheer grit, unfailing good nature, and
cheerfulness in pain, he measures up to the
highest. The Universities of Illinois and
Harvard may well be proud of him. oa)
It is possible that I may remain in the
North another year after this season, if it
seems that the results which I can reasonably
expect to achieve would justify my doing so.
Two good fields of work in botany tempt me—
that about the valley of the Mary Minturn
River, and the other at Kaugerdluksuah, at
the head of Inglefield Gulf.
om
eres
ale
uN
SS
: Ott neeayg ae f
Nas
SR iin
3:
BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN
NATURAL HISTORY’
By Charles R. Eastman
NDER the native appellation of
Tlacaxolotl, Hernandez gives
an account of the tapir, its
characters being fused, however, with
those of another mammalian species.
Jonston, in his Natural History of the
Fourfooted Beasts (1678) has a chapter
on “Certaine Outlandish Creatures of a
doubtfull kind,” wherein are included an
English rendering of Hernandez on the
tapir, and also one taken from Nierem-
berg and Lery, under the caption of the
“Danta”, or “Cappa.” The former
version reads in part as follows:
“Of the Tlacaxolotl”’
“ Having through Gods grace finished the
History of the Fourfooted Beasts, as many
sorts as are, as yet knowen, I thought good to
adde this appendix about forreigne doubtfull
Creatures, which I am yet thinking to what
head, or kind to referre. As first: The
Tlacazxolotl, it is roundish-faced, bigger then a
Bull, great-headed, long muzzle, broad eares,
cruell teeth, faced almost like a man, whence
it hath the name: the neck thick, the nails
like the Bulls, but larger: the but-
tocks great, and broad, tayl thick
and long; skin thick, hair yellow-
ish, and bristly. It is seldome
found, living among stones, and in
desolate places... . . The flesh is eate-
able. It fears not the face of man;
Arrows cannot pearce the hide;
therefore they catch them in pit-
falls, and holes covered with leaves,
as the Indians doe Elephants.”
“Of the Danta, or Cappa”
The Danta, or Capa, or Tapi-
roussu, or Doueanar, resembles the
Mule, having such ears, a Calves
lips; the upper-lips hangs a hand-
Peruvian llamas.
full over the lower, which he lifts up, when
angred, in the rest like other beast, but a Calf
most; he hath no harme....He is reddish-
haired, and that hanging down, and resembles
a Cow in bulk, and shape. But that he is not
horned, and hath a short neck, and long dan-
gling ears; by his dry, and slender legs, whole
hoof, aman may take him to be of the breed of
the Cow, or Asse, yet differs much from both,
having a very short tail, (though in America
many beasts are bred, without tails) and hath
much keener teeth, yet none need feare him, he
trusting more in flight, then fight. The wilds
shoot them, or catch them in pits, or grins,
and have handsome devices to hunt them.
They value him highly for his skin, which
they cut round, and lay a sunning to make
targets as big as a reasonable tun, which they
use in warre, as being hardly to be pearced.
For his descriptions of the opossum the
compiler whom we have just quoted
draws upon Marcgrav (1648), and this
author figures and describes two species.
The same animal is also shown, together
with the peccary, agouti and rare three-
banded armadillo in César de Roche-
fort’s work (1658) on the natural history
One of the earliest figures of the Ameri-
can camel found in printed books, although there are much
1Concluded from the last issue of
the JouRNAL. art.
older designs of the animal in maps and native works of
[From the Antwerp edition of Cieza de Leén, 1558}.
417
418
of the Antilles.1 An animal thought by
1It is charged by J. B. Dutertre that the
bulk of this work was taken, errors included,
from his own book on the Antilles, which appeared
in 1654. Le Pére Labat (Voyage, 1722) also
refers to the Sieur de Rochefort as a plagiarist
from Dutertre. One of the rare edentates (Dasy-
pus novemcinctus hoplites, G. M. Allen) figured
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Eduard Seler? to be the opossum, by
by these writers has been rediscovered, in the
island of Grenada within the last few years by
Glover M. Allen. See Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool.
vol. liv, no. 6, 1911.
2 Die Tierbilder der mexicanischen und der
Maya-Handschriften. Zeitschr. fiir Ethnologie,
Jahrg. xli, 1909.
Big game and other animal likenesses from the first encyclopzedia printed in our tongue, that of
Bartholomew Anglicus, 1494. Some of the same animals are much better drawn in the Album of
Villard de Honnecourt, a thirteenth century artist and architect
BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY
Allen and Tozzer,' however, interpreted
as a spotted dog, is depicted in several of
the Maya codices that have come down
to us from pre-conquistorial times.
Interesting in connection with the
aboriginal spotted dog of Mexico, and
the perro mudo” of the West Indies
(first observed by Columbus in Cuba and
Jamaica) is the race of hunting dog
which we find depicted in the minor
arts of pre-Homerie civilization border-
ing the Aegean, and continuing until
historic times. One of the earliest natu-
ralistic paintings of a spotted dog, dating
from at least the thirteenth century
B. C., is found in a colored frieze from
the palace of Tiryns, discovered in 1911.
The subject is a boar hunt, and the boar
1 Animal Figures of the Maya Codices. Papers
of Peabody Museum, Amer. Arch., vol. iv, 1910.
2A particular description of the native West
Indian dumb dog is given by Oviedo (1535), who
is also the earliest to describe in detail the hutia
(Capromys fourniert Desm.). See W. S. Mac-
Leay’s ‘‘Notes on Capromys,” in Zool. Journ.
vol. iv, 1829.
419
is shown driven by dogs on to the spears
of the hunters. In the background is a
marsh with weeds. The original of this
painting is preserved in the Museum at
Athens, and copies exist in the British
and various American Museums.
The Letters of Hernando Cortes to the
Emperor Charles V. are recognized as
“an historical monument of the greatest
authenticity and value,” forming, with
the True Relation of Bernal Diaz, the
original source of our information regard-
Egyptian hunting-dog, from an early dynastic
(5000 ? B. GC.) Stone palette found by Quibell
at Hierakonpolis
Brazilian quadrupeds, the jaguar, capybara and tapir, after colored drawings introduced in Blaeus’
map of Brazil, 1605
420
ing Mexico. The five Letters have
recently been published by F. A. Mac-
Nutt (1908) in English translation, and
are not without interest from a purely
natural history standpoint. Very valu-
able for the student are the bibliographi-
cal notes contained in this latest edition
of the Letters, and also those given by
the same translator in his new (1912)
version of The Eight Decades of Peter
Martyr D’Anghera. Critical notes on
the chief Spanish sources for Central
and South American archeology on
natural history are interspersed through-
out A. F. Bandelier’s work on The Islands
of Titicaca and Koati (1910).
English translations exist also of the
narratives of two early expeditions across
the southern part of the North American
continent, those led by Panfilo Narvaez
and Hernando de Soto. In the relation
of the former of these expeditions, by
Cabeza de Vaca, is found the earliest
account (1537) of the American bison.
A few years later, in 1540, herds were
next seen by white men accompanying
the Coronado expedition.!_ Probably the
earliest picture of the animal in question
is one given in the Idrography of Rotz
(1542), and this was copied in the maps
of Hondius, (1630 edition of Mercator)
Blaeu (World Atlas, 1664-65) and other
geographers. It may be remarked in
passing that one of Blaeu’s maps of
Brazil (vol. viii) is ornamented by col-
1 Annotated translations of the narrative of the
Hernando de Soto expedition, and of the Relation
of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, were published
by Buckingham Smith in 1866 and 1871. A new
translation of the journey of Cabeza de Vaca, by
F. Bandelier is included in the Trail Makers
Series (1905).
There are several English versions of the narra-
tive of the Coronado expedition; one edited by
G. P. Winship is found in the 14th Report of the
U. S. Bureau of Ethnology. Thevet’s figure of
the bison and Cieza de Leon’s rough woodcut of
one of the llama group, are reproduced in Winsor’s
Narrative and Critical History of America. A
great deal of historical matter relating to the bison
has been brought together by Dr. J. A. Allen.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
ored figures of the tapir, jaguar and
capybara, and early American cartog-
raphy in general abounds in interesting
portrayals of physical, animal and vege-
tal features of the New World.
Among North American fur-bearing
animals the beaver holds first place in
historical importance, and has given rise
to voluminous literature. The first pub-
lic seal of the province of New Nether-
lands, in use from 1623 to 1664, carries
the beaver as an armorial device. It is
represented also in Vischer’s “Map of
The Old World beaver (Castor fiber) engaged in
felling a tree, as shown in one of the earliest
printed works on natural history, the 15th century
Ortus Sanitatis of J. von Cuba
Novi Belgii’”’ (1656), together with the
fox, marten, bear, deer, wild turkey,
heron, etc. Probably the earliest printed
illustration is one occurring in a plate
given by Arnold Montanus (1671), in his
work already mentioned.
A much better figure of the beaver,
together with hunting scenes of the bison
and other animals, is to be found in
Baron La Hontan’s Nouveaux Voyages
(1715). Horace T. Martin, in his work
on the Canadian Beaver (1892), and also
Dr. F. A. Lucas in his interesting recent
BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY
article,! reproduce a “Figure of a Beaver
from the earliest known Monograph —
1685.” But the animal there shown is
the European beaver, and this species,
Castor fiber, was first figured by Johannis
von Cube at the end of the fifteenth
century in his curious “Hortus Sani-
tatis,” whose illustration is reproduced
herewith, and next after him by Ron-
delet in 1553. Rondelet’s figure is
copied by Conrad Gesner in the various
editions and translations of his ency-
clopedic works.?
Prior to the 18th century no single
work anywhere appeared on North
American plants and animals, corre-
sponding in character to the monumental
achievement of Marcgrav ‘ands Piso
(1648) on Brazil. A search among the
writings of early voyagers and travelers,
however, both French and English, is
rewarded by the discovery of many
surprisingly accurate observations. Nu-
merous authors might be mentioned in
this connection, but it will suffice.:to
name but one or two: Captain John
Smith’s Description of Virginia (in
Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. iv, 1625-26),
1 Amer. Mus. Journal, March, 1913. The
‘“‘earliest known Monograph’’ therein referred
to is one entitled Castorologia, written by Johann
Marius, a physician of Ulm, and republished by
Johann Francus in 1685. It is reviewed in the
Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. for the same year, vol.
Xv, p. 1249.
2 Among Old World animals figured by Gesner
it may be noted that the one given of the ichenu-
mon is taken from an ancient manuscript of
Oppian. The earliest printed figure of the giraffe
is found in the Opusculum of Bernard de Breyden-
bach (Mainz, 1486 and 1502). This and other
African mammals are shown in maps of much
earlier date, as for instance, the Hereford and
Ebstorf maps of 1280. Otto Keller, in his
“*Antike Tierwelt’’ (1999), gives an outline figure
of the giraffe after a mural painting in the Villa
Pamfili, Rome. Far more ancient, dating back
to the very dawn of history, is the Egyptian
hunting scene showing the giraffe, lop-eared hound
and other animals, which is reproduced by Quibell
in his memoir on the Exploration of Hierakon-
polis (1902).
“of those of Muscouin and Tartaris.
421
and John Josselyn’s New England’s
Rarities Discovered (1672). The latter
has been twice reprinted. From the
former we may give in closing a short
specimen extract, selected at random:
“Of beasts the chiefe are Deare, nothing
differing from ours. In the Desarts towards
the heads of the Rivers, there are many, but
amongst the Rivers few. There is a beast
they call Aronghcwm, much like a Badger, but
useth to live on trees as Squirrels doe. Their
Squirrels, some are neere as great as our
smallest sort of wilde Rabbits, some blackish
or blacke and white, but the most are gray.
A small beast they have, they call Assapanick,
but we will call them flying Squirrels, because
spreading their legs, and so stretching the
largenesse of their skinnes, they that have
been seene to flie thirtie or fortie yards. An
Opossum hath head like a Swine, and a taile
like a Rat, and is of the bignesse of a Cat.
Under her belly she hath a bag, wherein she
lodgeth, carrieth, and suckleth her young.
Mussascus, is a beast of the forme and nature
of our water Rats, but many of them smell
exceedingly strongly of Muske. Their Hares
are no bigger than our Conies, and few of them
to be found.
Their Beares are verie little in comparison
The
Beaver is as big as an ordinarie great Dog,
but his legs exceeding short. His fore feet
like a Dogs, his hinder feet like a Swans.
His taile somewhat like the forme of a Racket
bare without haire, which to eate the Sauages
esteeme a great delicate. They have many
Otters, which as the Beauers they take with
snares, and esteeme the skins great ornaments
and of all those beasts they use to feede when
they catch them.
Of Fish, we are best acquainted with
Sturgeon, Grampus, Porpus, Seales, Sting-
raies, whose tailes are very dangerous, Bretts,
Mullets, white Salmonds, Trowts, Soles,
Plaice, Herrings, Conyfish, Rockfish, Eels,
Lampreys, Catfish, Shades, Perch of three
sorts, Crabs, Shrimps, Creuises, Oysters,
Cocles and Muscles. But the most strange
Fish is a small one, so like the picture of
Saint George his Dragon, as possible can be,
except his legges and wings, and the Todefish,
which will swell till it be like to burst, when
it cometh into the aire.
Soe and Bere OR ME BS a P roe Pee : Pe a
Through courtesy of
E. P. Dutton and Company
THE AUTHOR OF “WILD BIRD GUESTS” ENTERTAINING
A FRIENDLY CHICKADEE
422
A VALUABLE NEW BIRD BOOK'
By T. Gilbert Pearson
HIS is one of those books, too
Als rare in our libraries and always
noteworthy, in which the author
writes from actual experience. It tells
us what he has really done, and what he
knows because he has tested his knowl-
edge — a practical book in the strictest
definition of the term. Mr. Baynes for
many years has been celebrated among
bird lovers for his extraordinary ability
in making friends with wild birds, and
for the ingenious and highly successful
devices by which he has induced them
to become his guests at his home in a
New Hampshire village. Birds not only
visit his garden as they do other places
where they have ordinary privileges,
but they also stay there, get ac-
quainted with the owner and his family,
and acquire and exhibit a confidence
that seems marvelous to outsiders.
Everyone who sees this desires to know
how he does it; and the book is in large
measure devoted to such explanation, and
to a description of the various best ways
to invite and to entertain his “ guests.”
Hence it abounds in practical descrip-
tions, with diagrams and photographs
as helpful illustrations of the various
forms of nesting-boxes, shelters, feeding-
stations, drinking-fountains, bird baths
and the like, that he has found most
successful. His success however im-
plies an intimate acquaintance with the
nature and habits of his winged visitors
— their several temperaments, foods,
breeding habits, enemies and prejudices;
and these he communicates freely for
the reader’s aid.
One feels as he reads the succes-
sively interesting pages, that Mr. Baynes
is also communicating somewhat of the
affection, and the untiring enthusiasm,
How To ENTERTAIN
106 1k
1Witp Birp GusEstTs,
‘THEM. By Ernest Harold Baynes.
Dutton and Company, New York City.
with which he has studied and wooed
the This enthusiasm is well
known to the thousands of persons who
have heard him lecture on birds, and it is
birds.
not surprising to learn that he has long
conducted a model bird club
home town, at Meriden, New Hamp-
shire, and has been the founder of scores
of bird-study and bird-protection clubs
in all parts of the country. This matter
forms an important part of his book.
He tells us why every community should
have a bird club and how to set it going
and keep it going.
The bird club he considers very im-
portant because the most serious enemy
of the birds is man, and the most serious
factor of man’s enmity is ignorance. If
in his
it were known more widely and generally
what this country has already lost and
is yearly losing in losing its birds, what
the people themselves and their chil-
dren are daily losing, there is hardly a
man, woman or child in the United
States who would not be codperating
eagerly in the movement for bird con-
servation. How many people know
that a conservative estimate of the
birds killed by domestic cats each year,
in Massachusetts only, is 700,000; that
there is much more “sport” to be had
in gaining the friendship of the birds
than in hunting them, and that the
actual need of our wild birds for suitable
nesting places and for food in winter, is
very imperative and very easily supplied?
Mr. Baynes tells of these things in in-
teresting detail, and then he says to
his readers in big letters, “If there is not
already a bird club in your neighbor-
hood, organize a bird club!”
Altogether Wild Bird Guests is a book
that should be in the hands of every orni-
thologist and conservationist; as well as
on the shelves of every school library.
423
FRAGMENTS OF SPIDER LORE
By Frank E. Lutz
RACHNIDA, the scientific name of
spiders and their relatives is derived
from that of a character in Grecian
mythology. According to Ovid,
Arachne was a mortal who was so skilled in
weaving that she ventured to challenge
Athena. When Athena saw that Arachne’s
work was without blemish she destroyed it.
Arachne was driven by grief to hang herself,
whereupon Athena changed her into a spider
and the rope became a cobweb.
Origin of Spiders
It is said in the sacred writings of ancient
India, that a large spider was the originator
of the universe. From her glands she wove
the web of which we inhabit a part and even
now she sits in its center directing its motion.
At her pleasure she will consume it, as many
of the spiders about us do their webs, and may
then spin a new universe. It is worth noting
that the same idea occurred in the folk lore
of certain American Indian tribes and is also
found in that of Guinea.
Spiders did not hold so exalted a station
with all people. The idea was current in
many parts of the world that they have their
origin in putrefaction. Moufet proved this
as follows: ‘‘It is manifest that spiders are
bred of some aéreal seeds putrefied, from filth
and corruption, because that the newest
houses the first day they are whited will have
both spiders and cobwebs in them.” His
daughter was doubtless the heroine of
the nursery rhyme:
Little Miss Moufet sat on a tuffet
Eating her curds and whey
There came a great spider
And sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Moufet away.
Spiders in the Bible
There are three fairly well-known Biblical
passages concerning spiders. Agur (Proverbs
XXX, 28) includes the spider that “taketh
hold with her hands and is in kings’ palaces”’
among the four things which are little but
exceeding wise, and the frail spider’s web is a
symbol of the hypocrite’s hope (Job VIII, 14)
as well as of the disobedient Jews’ works
(Isaiah LIX, 5).
424
Spiders in History
If we may believe legends, Mohammed, St.
Felix of Nola and other victims of pursuit
have been saved by spiders spinning webs over
the entrances to their hiding places. The
pursuers, seeing the webs, decided that no one
had passed that way and neglected to look.
The fortunes of Robert Bruce were at low
ebb and he lay, discouraged, gazing at the cob-
webs on the rafters. A spider, after vainly
trying twelve times to swing itself by its
thread from one beam to another, succeeded
on the thirteenth attempt. ‘The thirteenth
time,’’ shouted Bruce, ‘‘I accept it as a lesson
not to despond under difficulties, and shall
once more venture my life in the struggle for
the independence of my country.’”? He won.
Perhaps not much more legendary than
these is the story that the spiders in the temple
of Ceres Thesmophoros wove white webs
when the Theban army was to be victorious,
but black ones, signifying defeat, when
Alexander made his attack.
Spiders as Weather Prophets
During his imprisonment at Utrecht,
Quatremer Disjonval observed the relation
between changes in the weather and the habits
of spiders. When the French invaded Hol-
land in 1794 by crossing the water barriers
on ice, Disjonval hoped to be released. An
unexpected thaw came in December and the
French were about to withdraw but, as Dis-
jonval’s spiders predicted a return of cold
weather he got word to the French general
to wait. This was done; the cold came and
the French were able to move even their
heaviest artillery and to take Utrecht.
Some of the ideas on this subject are as
follows: if the weather is to be rough the
threads which support the web are unusually
short. Before a rain spiders are indolent.
If they are active during a rain fair weather
will quickly follow. If spiders make changes
in their webs before 7 p. Mm. the night will be
clear and pleasant.
Spiders as Omens of Luck
In Maryland it is said that if you kill a
spider which gets on your clothing you destroy
FRAGMENTS OF SPIDER LORE
the presents it is weaving for you. A seven-
teenth century writer puts it as follows:
‘When a spider is found upon your clothes, we
used to say some money is coming toward us.
The moral is this:
dustry of that contemptible creature may, by
God’s blessing, weave themselves into wealth
and procure a plentiful estate.”
Instead of killing them you may throw
them over your left shoulder if you wish good
luck. If you feel that you must kill a spider
that has taken up its abode in your house,
carry it outside for its execution; otherwise
you will be ‘“‘pullmg down your house.”
If you kill a spider crossing your path you
will have bad luck. If a white spider drops
in front of you, you will soon see a dear friend;
if a black one does the same, you will meet an
enemy. In the Netherlands a spider seen
in the morning forebodes good luck; in the
afternoon bad luck.
Spiders and Music
The following is from the Anthologia
Borealis et Australis
I hailed thee, friendly spider, who hadst wove,.
Thy mazy net on yonder mouldering raft;
Would that the cleanlie housemaid’s foot had left
Thee tarrying here, nor took thy life away;
For thou, from out this seare old ceiling’s cleft,
Came down each morn to hede my plaintive lay;
Joying like me to heare sweete musick play,
Werwith I’d fein beguile the dull, dark, linger-
ing day.
It is said that when the young ladies in a
certain English school sang at morning and
evening prayers spiders always came out of
their hiding places and ran about the floor
or suspended themselves from the ceiling.
Before the French author, Pellisson, was
converted to Catholicism he was imprisoned
in the Bastille. There he fed a spider while
his cell-mate played a bagpipe. The spider
came to associate the music with food and
finally could be called to any part of the cell
by blowing on the bagpipe. The sequel to
the story is that the governor of the Bastille,
hearing that his prisoners had found a
pleasure in their confinement asked for a
demonstration. When the spider came out
he crushed it with his foot.
There are several similar stories. Another
from the time of Louis XIV is that Lanzun,
during one of his imprisonments trained a
spider to come for food when he called it.
The interesting part here is that the spider
such who imitate the in-_
425
not only associated sound with food but dis-
tinguished between sounds, for when others
tried to imitate Lanzun’s voice the spider
refused to come.
Poisonous Spiders
All spiders are poisonous but there are very
few which injure man. ‘This is partly due to
lack of inclination and partly to inability to
pierce the human skin. However, fear of
spiders is almost universal. Sometimes this
fear amounts to a mania, the victim going into
hysterics at the mere sight of one of them.
The fumes from burning spiders are alleged
to cause faintness, cold sweats, vomiting and
finally death. Some monks in Florence are
reported to have died from drinking wine in
which a spider had fallen. Of course the
tragedy was attributed to the spider. On the
other hand, Conradus, Bishop of Constance,
swallowed a spider which had fallen into
sacramental wine and suffered no ill effects.
The bite of a large spider —any large
spider is commonly called a tarantula —
is said to cause the victim to ‘‘make a
thousand different gestures in a moment;
for they weep, dance, tremble, laugh, grow
pale, ery, swoon away and after a few days
of torment expire, if they be not assisted in
time.’’ Music is considered to be an anti-
dote.
From the Treasvrie of Avncient and Mod-
erne Times (1619) we learn that ‘‘ Alexander
Alexandrinus proceedeth farther, affirming
that he beheld one wounded by this Spider,
to dance and leape about incessantly, and the
Musitians (finding themselves wearied) gave
over playing; whereupon, the poore offended
dancer, hauing vtterly lost all his forces, fell
downe on the ground, as if he had bene dead.
The Musitians no sooner began to play
againe, but hee returned to himselfe, and
mounting vp vpon his feet, danced againe
as lustily as formerly hee had done, and so
continued dancing still, til hee found the
harme asswaged, and _ himselfe entirely
recovered.”’
It has also been said that if a wasp has been
bitten by a spider and lively music be played,
both the wasp and the spider will begin to
dance. The same has been said of a bitten
chicken. On the other hand if the spider
concerned be killed, dancing will stop even in
the case of human beings.
On account of these ideas a certain kind of
hysterical dance is called the Tarantula.
426
Italian beggars sometimes claim to have
been bitten and solicit alms while in a danc-
ing fit.
Spiders as Medicine
Cobwebs are still used to stop bleeding, a
thing which Bottom had in mind when he
said to the fairy Cobweb ‘‘I shall desire of
you more acquaintance, good master Cobweb.
If I cut my finger, I shall make bold with
you.” Ben Jonson said that a certain penuri-
ous individual ‘“‘sweeps down no cobwebs
here but sells ’em for cut fingers.’
Spiders’ webs have been taken internally
forague. Chapman’s Materia Medica (1824)
recommends doses of five grains of spiders’
web, repeated every fourth or fifth hour for
“ obstinate intermittents, paroxysms of hectic,
morbid vigilance from excessive nervous
mobility, irritations of the system from many
causes especially when connected with pro-
tracted coughs and other chronic pectoral
affections.”
If cobwebs be burned on a wart it will be
rooted out and never grow again. Pliny
states that cobwebs, especially the part which
forms the spider’s retreat is useful when
applied to the forehead as a cure for watery
eyes. The web must be taken and put on by
a boy who has not reached puberty, who must
not show himself to the patient for three days,
and, furthermore, neither he nor the patient
may touch the ground with bare feet during
this time. He also recommends cobwebs
moistened with oil and vinegar for cranial
fractures.
The spiders themselves seem to have been
very efficacious. One sewed up in a rag
or enclosed between two nutshells and worn
around the neck will charm away ague. It
should also be applied to the wrist or temples
in the case of bad fevers. If a spider be
taken when neither sun nor moon is shining
and the hind legs be pulled off and wrapped
in deer’s skin, the combination will, accord-
ing to some, relieve gout. Moufet remarked
that ‘we finde those people to be free from
the gowt of hands or feet (which few medica-
ments can doe) in whose houses the Spiders
breed much, and doth beautifie them with
her tapestry and hangings.”
Pliny gives uses for spiders as well as for
their webs. The thick pulp of a spider’s
body, mixed with oil of roses, makes an ear
lotion. Among the best remedies for spider
bites are spiders left to putrify in oil.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAI.
Homeopathic treatment seems to have been
much favored in cases of spider bites. Col-
lections of dead spiders have been made
because if a person bitten by a spider look at
another specimen of the same species he will
be cured. Dried spiders have been taken
internally for the same purpose.
Spiders as Food
It seems that not every one is afraid of
spiders. Lande, the French astronomer,
proved by eating spiders as delicacies that
he could raise himself above dislikes and
prejudices. Spiders were eaten by the abo-
rigines of America and Australia. A quo-
tation from Molien’s Travels in Africa says
that the people of Maniana ‘eat spiders,
beetles and old men.”
Doubtless quite a list could be made of
uncivilized tribes that eat spiders and there
is a number of recorded instances of more
advanced persons who, like Lande have
acquired the habit. One is given in verse:
How early Genius shows itself at times,
Thus Pope, the prince of poets, lisped in rhymes,
And our Sir Joshua Banks, most strange to utter,
To whom each cockroach-eater is a fool,
Did, when a very little boy at school,
Eat Spiders, spread upon his bread and butter.
Economic Value of Spiders
It is undoubtedly true that spiders catch
and kill many injurious insects. In the
fields good insects suffer with the bad,
but as few good insects find their way into
our houses the house spiders are almost en-
tirely beneficial. However, since spiders
are not encouraged to live in our houses it
is doubtful whether the group as a whole
helps us greatly in our fight against injurious
insects.
The strong supporting threads of cobwebs
have been much used in telescopes for the
purpose of making fine lines appear in the
field of vision.
Silk spun by spiders to cover their eggs has
been woven into cloth. It is said that the
fabric is so transparent that a young lady was
once reproved by her father for the immodesty
of her costume although she wore seven thick-
nesses of it. Since it requires more than
half a million egg-masses to yield a pound of
silk the industry does not promise to become
commercially profitable.
CORYTHOSAURUS, THE NEW DUCK-BILLED DINOSAUR
By W. D. Matthew and Barnum Brown
HE American Museum of Natural
History has recently added a remark-
able specimen to the series of skele-
tons in the Dinosaur hall. It is a
crested, duck-billed dinosaur, unusually com-
plete and in many ways unique; for not only
is the bony skeleton and the skin impression
surrounding the body preserved, but under-
neath the skin may be traced at least four
distinct sets of muscles, showing definite
origin and insertion of each series.
Evidently the body had floated along some
prehistoric beach where, caught in quiet
water, it was stranded lying on its left side
on a bed of plants the carbonaceous remains
of which may still be seen, accounting for
the indefinite impression of a large part of
the skin on the left side. Unio shells were
scattered all about; other trachodont bones
and a water turtle lay on the top of the tail,
and over the body were deposited three large
folds of sandstone, the cross-bedded layers
showing deposits by water currents from
different directions. On this upper right
side the fine sandy silt preserved a better
impression of the skin, where it was not torn
away, and the outline of the underlying bony
skeleton is distinct.
_ This skeleton is complete except for the
fore limbs, most of which are missing, but
the bones are mostly concealed under the skin.
The texture of the skin is not as well preserved
as in the “dinosaur mummy” also exhibited
in this hall, but shows a similar pattern of
small, tesselated scales, not overlapping like
those of a lizard or snake, but grouped in pat-
terns and of various sizes and arrangement
in different parts of the body. The double
series of slender, rodlike, calcified tendons
along the back are very clearly shown; these
are tendons of part of the great muscles that
moved the backbone in a vertical plane.
It is very rarely that any portion of an
extinct animal other than the skeleton is pre-
served. The softer parts almost always decay
and disappear without leaving a trace behind,
long before petrefaction sets in. Usually all
that we know of an extinct animal is derived
from the study of its skeleton and of its bony
armor, if it had any. Any trace of skin or
other soft parts is naturally a great help in
attempting to reconstruct its external form
and in determining its habits. Such evidence
is especially welcome in connection with dino-
saurs, animals millions of years old and
very different from any now living. Delicate
and often obscure as are the skin impressions,
they have been noticed and recorded on vari-
ous fossil skeletons; but it is only within the
last few years that the development of the
technique of excavating and preparing such
specimens has made it possible to save them
entire. The two dinosaur skeletons in this
hall are believed to be the only ones with the
skin extensively preserved shown in any
museum. A third specimen has been secured
by the Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt-am-
Main, but is not yet completely prepared for
exhibition.
The new acquisition in the American Mu-
seum was found in 1912 by a Museum expedi-
tion in charge of Mr. Barnum Brown, in the
Belly River cretaceous rocks exposed at
Steveville, on the fossil-famous Red Deer
River of Alberta, Canada. It was taken up
in large blocks, united in the laboratory just
as found, and raised to a vertical position so
that both sides may be seen, thus assuming a
pose the animal may well have taken while
swimming. The missing parts of the front
limbs have been painted on the matrix from a
second skeleton of the same size found last
year, as also the tip of the tail, which was
weathered out and partly missing.
The preparation of the skeleton was a slow
and difficult process, requiring great skill
and patience on the part both of collector and
preparator. It was so fragile and heavy in
some parts that it was necessary to support
it by a perfect network of steel rods perforat-
ing the blocks in every direction, and in other
parts so extremely thin and delicate that the
least pressure would have shattered or
damaged it beyond repair. Add to this the
difficulty of removing the rock matrix, often
quite hard, from the delicate film which repre-
sents the skin, and cleaning it so as to show
the structure; of cleaning and mending the
innumerable breaks and joints caused by the
earth-jars and movements in the rocks during
the millions of years since it was buried; and
it will not appear surprising that two years
427
428
time was taken by the preparators before the
work was completed. The preparation work
was done chiefly by Mr. Otto Falkenbach.
The animal is a new kind of duck-billed
dinosaur, related to the Tvrachodon and
Saurolophus of which skeletons are shown
elsewhere in the hall, but the distinguishing
and striking feature of this new animal is the
skull, on account of which it is given the name
Corythosaurus (meaning Corinthian-helmeted
saurian). The remarkable crest on the top
of the skull probably supported a flexible,
ornamental membrane as seen in some
modern lizards. The rest of the skeleton is
in a general way like that of Trachodon and
other members of the family of dinosaurs,
the distinctive feature being the development
of the pelvis and the proportion of the limbs.
The trachodonts were a great family of
herbivorous dinosaurs numerous in genera
and species and represented by great numbers
of individuals in late Upper Cretaceous times.
The body was covered by tuberculated skin
of distinct pattern in the different genera
and all of these duck-billed dinosaurs seem to
have been good swimmers, if we may judge
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
by the vertically flattened tail characteristic
of swimming reptiles. Probably they escaped
from their enemies in that way, for they were
without means of offense or defense, bearing
neither horns nor armor plates like their
contemporaries the ceratopsians and anky-
losaurs.
The limbs and feet were adapted for walk-
ing or running, and in swimming would prob-
ably be trailed behind or pressed closely
against the sides. The modern iguanas of the
Galapagos Islands swim in this way, and the
position in which the Corythosaurus skeleton
lies in the rock is strikingly suggestive of a
swimming pose; although it must be remem-
bered that when discovered the specimen lay
flat on its side, the carcass crushed to a thin
plate by the overwhelming weight of thou-
sands of feet of mud and sand sediment which,
during the millions of years since it was
deposited, had turned into rock. The length
of the specimen is eighteen feet, and startling
indeed must have been the appearance of
Corythosaurus as it rose from the water to its
full height with helmet raised cap-a-pie like
a knight of old.
MUSEUM NOTES
Since the last issue of the JournaL the
following persons have become members of
the Museum:
Life Members, Mrs. E. C. Converse, PRro-
FESSOR RaymMonpd C. OspurN and Messrs.
B. Preston Crark, fAtrrep Harner ‘and
Henry C. Ketsry;
Annual Members, Mrs. Louris ANSBACHER,
Mrs. Leo ARNSTEIN, Mrs. F. O. Ayrgs,
Mrs. A. Battin, Mrs. JANET BURCHELL,
Mrs. F. 8. Coonipcr, Mrs. JonatHan H.
Crane, Mrs. J. C. DeSousa, Mrs. Roser
FisHer, Mrs. SAMUEL FLOERSHEIMER, Mrs.
Tuomas B. M. Gates, Mrs. James Gros-
vENOR, Mrs. BENJAMIN GUINNESS, Mrs.
Victor GuInzBuRG, Mrs. FREDERICK C.
Hicks, Mrs. Aucustus Jay, Mrs. Harry
T. Jounson, Mrs. W. N. Kernan, Mrs.
Joun B. Mort, Mrs. Jonn W. Notes, Mrs.
WHEELER H. PreckHamM, Mrs. CLARENCE
Porter, Mrs. Samuret Srieret, Mrs.
SamuEL Swirt, Misses Auice H. ANNAN,
Mary T. BrapiEy, Guapys CROMWELL,
MADELEINE GELSHENEN, AucGusTA Bor-
LAND GREENE, EuizaABeETH Hanna, H.
Maup Henry and Nina Ruoapss, Dr. T.
PassMoRE Brrens, Dr. FENTON B. Turck,
Dr. Atvin M. PAPpPpENHEIMER and Messrs.
Grorce D. Artaur, WiLiraAM B. Bristow,
W. H. CxeseproucH, Wrii1aAmM DetT#,
Harris Fannestock, Ropert Epison Fut-
TON, ABRAHAM L. GoLDSTONE, OapEN H.
Hammonp, FrepERIcK W. Herz, Max
Herzoa, M. B. Hitiecas, H. M. KAvFMANN,
Maurice Marks, HorrmMan NICKERSON,
J. PARMLY PARET, FREDERICK SNARE, J. E.
STeRRETT, Ferrx A. Voqcrent, Grorce A.
VONDERMUHLL, Louis T. Watson and
Master Eucene DuBots.
AT a meeting of the Executive Committee
of the American Museum on November 17,
Mr. B. Preston Clark was elected a life
member in consideration of his generosity
in bearing the expense of Mr. F. A. Watson’s
entomological field trip to Santo Domingo
last spring. Mr. Clark is himself an ento-
mologist and has presented to the Museum
numerous rare species of Sphingide. Dr.
Raymond C. Osburn, formerly of the New
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wi
y a
sf
Ancient gold work from Panama recently purchased for the Museum
York Aquarium, and now professor of biology
at the Connecticut College for Women, New
London, has also been made a life member in
appreciation of his gratuitous services to the
Museum in connection with the collections
of the Townsend “‘Albatross’’ expedition.
FIvE pieces of ancient gold work from the
district of Alange, province of Chiriqui,
western Panama, have been recently pur-
chased for the Museum. The objects are
similar to those in Mr. Keith’s collection
described in the October number of the
JOURNAL, and are all amulets, used as breast
ornaments. The finest specimen, illustrated
above, is in almost complete relief, and
represents a human skeleton, from the arms
and head of which project profile heads of
the deified crocodile, indicating that the
figure is probably that of a god. Another of
the specimens represents a deer, and is a
characteristic example of the skill in animal
modeling attained by the ancient peoples of
Panama. The specimens will be found on
exhibition in the Mexican hall.
Tue Hitchcock Lectures on ‘Men of the
Old Stone Age, Their Environment, Life
and Art,’ delivered by Prof. Henry Fair-
field Osborn at the University of California
in February, 1914, have just been published
in book form by Charles Scribner’s Sons, and
constitute a notable addition to the literature
of palzolithic times. The book is lavishly
illustrated with numerous reproductions of
paleolithic engravings, carvings, and paint-
ings from caves and rock shelters; original
drawings by Messrs. Charles R. Knight and
Erwin S. Christman, and charts and cross
sections by Dr. Chester A. Reeds. Of spe-
cial interest are the restorations of the Pithe-
canthropus, Piltdown, La Chapelle, and
Cré-Magnon men, modeled by Professor
J. H. McGregor upon casts of the original
fossils. The book will be reviewed in a
forthcoming issue of the JOURNAL.
Mr. Amos F. Eno who died on October 21,
bequeathed to the American Museum the
sum of $250,000. Mr. Eno was an annual
member of the Museum since 1881, and a
life member since June, 1905. With the
exception of the Jesup bequest this is the
largest ever received by the Museum.
429
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MUSEUM NOTES
A croup of king penguins recently in-
stalled in the Museum (central pavilion,
second floor) is the first of a series of habitat
bird groups of the world, planned by Dr.
Chapman to round out the systematic series
of birds shown in the adjoining hall. The
plan contemplates flooring over the central
section to insure the necessary darkness and
permit these habitat groups, like those of
the birds of North America, to be illuminated
entirely by controlled artificial light. This
construction at the same time makes pro-
vision for groups of monkeys and lemurs
on the floor above. The heterogeneous as-
semblage of animals now in this central sec-
tion of the second floor is to be variously
provided for: the groups of reptiles in a hall
in the projected east wing; the seals and sea
elephants with other marine mammals in
the attached court building, and the Asiatic
mammals in a hall of their own. Unfortu-
nately these improvements and changes,
long contemplated and planned for, require
extensive funds, and the resources of the city
for the past three years have not been
sufficient to permit the erection of the much
needed new wing. Meanwhile, the unsat-
isfactory condition of the central pavilion
is keenly felt by the Museum and it has been
necessary to announce by means of labels
that various groups are “placed here awaiting
the construction of a new wing.”
Durine the last six months an entirely
new process in taxidermy has been invented
and tried out by Mr. Carl E. Akeley of the
American Museum. Mr. Akeley’s -previ-
ously worked out processes have hitherto
represented the high water mark of attain-
ment in this direction, and although they
did not reach his own ideal they came as
near it as he thought practice would ever
permit. The new idea which came to him
last summer however, and which has now
been thoroughly tested, produces results
which for softness of modeling, accuracy in
reproducing the individual animal and degree
of permanence, are far ahead of anything
heretofore possible, and which are achieved
at infinitely less cost of labor, money and
time. It is a conservative statement to say
that this invention will reduce the cost of
the projected new African hall of the Museum
by at least one hundred thousand dollars,
while the value of the exhibits will be in-
creased to an inestimable degree. Not only
431
so, but the infinite trouble, worry, and neces-
sity for some compromise involved in the
mounting of specimens hitherto is reduced
by this method quite eighty-five per cent.
Two buffalo heads have already been mounted
by the new process and a lion’s head is now
in hand.
In addition to the splendid collection of
20,000 vertebrate and 140,000 invertebrate
specimens brought from Africa by the Lang-
Chapin expedition, the evidence in the shape
of photographs by Mr. Lang and accurate
colored drawings by Mr. Chapin is unusually
varied and complete. No less than 7000
photographs help to set forth the animal life
of the Congo, as well as the industries,
customs, art, ceremonies, amusements and
mode of life of the natives; while the ethno-
logical value of the work is further supple-
mented by some seventy casts of heads which
Mr. Lang was able to make through the
consent of a tribe of Pygmies.
On Friday evening, December 17, Mr.
Ernest Harold Baynes will lecture at the
American Museum to the adult blind of
New York City and Brooklyn on “Wild
Animal Friends of Mine.’ Mr. Baynes is
widely known as a friend of the birds; this
lecture will tell how he has improved ac-
quaintance also with the fox, skunk, bear,
wolf and other creatures. Doors will be
open at 7.30, to permit of inspection by the
blind of specimens of the animals, the lecture
following at 8.15, P.M.
The lecture to the blind on November 19,
attracted over three hundred blind persons
and their attendants and acknowledgment is
due to the excellent work of the boy scouts
in this connection, who for some time past
have convoyed to and from the lectures such
of the blind as were in need of an attendant.
One of the interesting papers read at the
recent meeting of the National Academy of
Sciences at the Museum was by Professor
Herbert S. Jennings on ‘“‘Can we Observe
Organic Evolution in Progress?”
In most breeding experiments the original
stock is usually not a “pure line,’ but a
mixture containing various strains due to
the fact that each individual is the offspring
of two parents, each with more or less differ-
ent hereditary tendencies. Breeding experi-
ments on such ‘‘biparental’’ organisms
432
having failed to yield a rigid theoretical
proof of evolution by selection, many similar
experiments had been made with the same
object on certain organisms which have only
one parent; but in most cases these “uni-
parental”’ strains are just as resistant to the
process of selection with reference to given
characters as are biparental races. Professor
Jennings had succeeded however, in getting
positive results from selective processes in
the case of certain kinds of Difflugia, uni-
parental amoeba-like animals. Starting with
a single individual, he had by selecting for
large size, been able in the course of many
generations to increase materially the size
of the individuals; and similarly by segre-
gating in each generation the individuals
having the largest number of spines, he had
succeeded in materially increasmg the num-
ber of spines. Even after selection ceased
the progeny of the modified races retained
the effects of the selective process.
A LARGE and representative collection of
invertebrate fossils from Porto Rico was
secured by Messrs. Chester A. Reeds and
Prentice B. Hill in the work carried on by
them the past summer in connection with the
Porto Rico survey. In addition Dr. Reeds
brought back a fairly well-preserved jaw and
several parts of ribs representative of fossil
mammals of the Tertiary formations. Ter-
tiary mammals are almost unknown in the
West Indies. The only described specimen
is the skull of a very interesting primitive
Sirenian, related to the manatee and dugong
found in Jamaica and named Prorastomus
by Professor Owen many years ago. Dr.
Reed’s specimens are probably Sirenian —
the jaw certainly is —but differ from Pro-
rastomus. It may help to clear up some of
the puzzling problems in the evolution of the
original group, an offshoot, as now appears,
of the same primitive stock that gave rise to
the elephants and mastodons. It is of inter-
est also to note that certain bones from the
Porto Rico Tertiary in the collection of
Signor Narcisso Rabell Cabrero, San Sebas-
tian, appear also to be Sirenian. No land
mammals have been found in any Tertiary
formation in the West Indies; this however
is to be expected since these formations are
all marine or littoral, and the discovery of
land animals in them would not be expected
unless as a rare accident.
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL
Tue large collection of prehistoric pot-
tery collected by Mr. Algot Lange on the
island of Marajo has been acquired by the
American Museum. Marajo Island in the
mouth of the Amazon River is 165 miles long
by 120 wide, or considerably larger than the
island of Jamaica, and belongs to Brazil.
A collection of some two thousand pieces
comes from Pacoval Island in Lake Arary,
the source of the Arary River. Mr. Lange
described the little island of Pacoval as a
veritable archzological mine. Fragments of
pottery coyer the ground and everywhere
the earth is mixed with pottery ranging in
size from minute pieces to vessels weighing
as much as twenty-five pounds. Nothing
is known of the makers of this ware. Who
they were or where they came from is at
present a mystery, but it is hoped that a
study of the unique and beautiful decora-
tions on the pottery will afford some infor-
mation on the point.
Dr. Ciark WissLeR and Dr. Robert H.
Lowie, of the American Museum of Natural
History, have been appointed delegates from
the New York Academy of Sciences to the
Nineteenth International Congress of Ameri-
canists which meets in Washington at the
end of December.
Dr. Henry E. Crampton, curator of
invertebrate zodlogy at the American Mu-
seum, delivered the oration before the Phi
Beta Kappa Association of Pennsylvania
on December 4. Dr. Crampton took for
his subject ‘Science, Culture and Human
Duty.”
Tue annual meeting and dinner of the New
York Academy of Sciences will be held
December 20. The retiring president, Dr.
George F. Kunz, will deliver the address
of the occasion.
Mr. M. P. SKINNER, a member of the
American Museum, has presented to the
institution some valuable motion-picture
films and photographs of animals of the
Yellowstone Park, obtained during his twenty
years experience in that region.
The American Museum of Natural History
Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City
Open free to the public on every day in the year.
The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the
Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people.
It is dependent
upon private subscriptions and the fees from members for procuring needed additions to the
collections and for carrying on explorations in America and other parts of the world. The
membership fees are,
ATMEL IVECIMDEGLS — eae erercrala econ $ 10
Sustaining Members (annually).. . 25
ITE IVICTHIDETS ance tee eies Menai ters st 100
GHOWS sac ee ees ee me es 500
IP ADEONST et eee Ae see ot ee ee $1,000
Associate Benefactors.............. 10,000
Associate Founders................ 25,000
BONGtAChONsitss ts tee eee 50,000
Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request to members and teachers by the
department of public education.
Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone
the department for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied. Lectures to
classes may also be arranged for.
of children.
In all cases the best results are obtained with small groups
The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working collection
of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and abroad.
The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and holidays excepted —
from 9 a.M. to 5 P.M.
The Technical Publications of the Museum comprise the Memoirs, Bulletin and
Anthropological Papers, the Memoirs and Bulletin edited by J. A. Allen, the Anthropological
Papers by Clark Wissler.
the institution.
These publications cover the field and laboratory researches of
The Popular Publications of the Museum comprise the JourNaL, edited by Mary
Cynthia Dickerson, the Handbooks, Leaflets and General Guide.
The following list gives
some of the popular publications; complete lists, of both technical and popular publications,
may be obtained from the Librarian.
POPULAR PUBLICATIONS
HANDBOOKS
Nortu AMERICAN INDIANS OF THE PLains. By Clark
Wissler, Ph.D. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.
INDIANS OF THE SouTHWEST. By Pliny Earle Goddard,
Ph.D. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.
ANIMALS OF THE Past. By Frederic A. Lucas, Sc.D.
Paper, 35 cents.
ILLUSTRATED GUIDE LEAFLETS
GENERAL GUIDE TO THE CoLLEctiIons. New edition
issued December, 1914. P ice, 25 cents.
THE COLLECTION OF Minerats. By Louis P. Grata-
cap, A.M. Price, 5 cents.
Norru AMERICAN RUMINANTS.
Price, 10 cents.
Tue Ancrent Basket Makers oF SouTHEASTERN
Uran. By George H. Pepper. Price, 10 cents.
Primitive Art. Price, 15 cents.
Tue Brrps oF THE Vicinity oF NEw York City. By
Frank M. Chapman, Se.D. Price, 15 cents.
PeruviAN Mummies. By Charles W. Mead. Price,
10 cents.
Tue METEORITES IN THE FOYER OF THE AMERICAN
Museum or Naturat History. By Edmund Otis
Hovey, Ph.D. Price, 10 cents.
Tue Hasirat Groups or NortaH AMERICAN Birps.
By Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D. Price, 15 cents.
By J. A. Allen, Ph.D.
Tue Indians or MANHATTAN ISLAND AND VICINITY.
By Alanson Skinner.
THe Stokes ParinTINGS REPRESENTING GREENLAND
Esko. Price, 5 cents.
Brier History or ANTARCTIC EXPLORATIONS.
10 cents.
TREES AND Forestry. By Mary Cynthia Dickerson,
B.S. A new edition in course of preparation.
Tue PrRoTEcTION oF River AND HARBOR WATERS FROM
Mounicrpat Wastes. By Charles-Edward Amory
Winslow, M.S. Price, 10 cents.
PLant Forms 1n Wax. By E. C. B. Fassett.
10 cents.
Tue EyoLuTion oF THE Horse.
Ph.D. Price, 20 cents.
Mammortus AND Masropons. By W.D. Matthew, Ph.D.
Price, 10 cents.
Price,
Price,
By W.D Matthew,
REPRINTS
' THe Grounp Stora Group. By W. D. Matthew,
Ph.D. Price, 5 cents.
MetnHops anp REsuLts IN HERPETOLOGY.
Cynthia Dickerson, B.S. P ice, 5 cents.
Tue Warr Pitre Group. By Roy W. Miner, A.B.
Price, 5 cents.
THe Sea Worm Group!
Price, 10 cents.
THe ANCESTRY OF THE EDENTATES.
thew, Ph.D. Price, 5 cents.
By Mary
By Roy W. Miner, A.B.
By W. D. Mat-
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